


Geronimo

by astarpen



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, G!P
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-03-29 13:45:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 56,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astarpen/pseuds/astarpen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it's guilt, anger, love, loss or betrayal. Change is never easy. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go. But people who are meant to be together find their way back, they make take a few detours but they're never lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: The Present

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Welcome to Geronimo, another Chartana fic, a different beast all together from the usual fluff, not to say that there won't be fluff. But as you'll soon see, it's not all roses. Despite the title of the fic. I hope you enjoy it though .
> 
> Summary: One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it's guilt, anger, love, loss or betrayal. Change is never easy. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go. But people who are meant to be together find their way back, they make take a few detours but they're never lost.
> 
> Song – Geronimo by Sheppard
> 
> Disclaimer – I own nothing.

She exhaled slowly and adjusted the envelope in her hand as she waited for the elevator to reach its intended floor. She used the time to compose herself. To remind herself that she _owed_ it to her to do this in person, to hand over the documents face to face. She inhales and tries to mentally make sure that her check list is complete.

Moved out? Check.

Divorce lawyer? Check.

Notice of Divorce? She looks in her hands at the manila envelope and swallows her hand shaking. It was the nuclear option. She knew it was, but it wasn't working anymore. She wasn't even personally quite sure _how_ they had gotten to this point. It had only been _eight_ years. She wondered if this was the right decision, every couple went through rough patches but they could work through it. She places her hand on her stomach and a small smile slips onto her lips, but a breaking point had been reached and she couldn't raise their daughter in this environment. Not with how toxic it had become, not even if she desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were.

Maybe it had been their jobs that had pulled them apart. She was a social worker in a system that was grossly underfunded, the things she saw, and the people she needed to deal with. It broke bher heart on a day to day basis. Her wife had many hats, she was a journalist, who cohosted a very popular internet news show that was insanely popular. Throw in the fact she was part owner of The Edge and her wife was beyond busy most days. A part of her wonders if maybe they had just forgotten how to love each other, but it's more than that. She knows it is, but it's a part of the puzzle.

She can't pinpoint where it had begun to unravel but it had, and the life growing inside of her had been the breaking point. Their sex life had been lacking for a while, they would go months without having sex and she had gotten nonchalant about her birth control. It had been an accident, one that she wasn't going to get rid of. To some a child would be heralded as the savior to a broken marriage. But she knows better and this child would know nothing but love. Even if the way she had been conceived had been anything but loving. Years ago she would have said that angry sex was the best, it had certainly led to some of the best sex that she had ever had. But the last time that they had sex which was nearly six weeks ago—it had left her feeling empty. There hadn't been the usual smile—there was just more anger. It hadn't made anything better and like many times they hadn't even slept in the same bed after the deed was done.

There was a ding and she adjusted her jacket and the door slid open to the busy news office. She watched the interns running around, they were in the middle of an expansion and moving to a different studio, which of course pulled her wife away more often than not. She sighed and ignored everyone as she walked straight to her wife's office and frowned slightly at the empty desk in front of her wife's office where her secretary should be. She already knew exactly where she'd find her wife's secretary and she held her head high as she walked to her wife's office and knocked twice before opening the door. She struggled to keep her face neutral as she watched her wife's secretary jump away from her wife and the guilty expression on her face.

"Santana—I mean Mrs. Fabray-Lopez?" Dani said looking at her boss, there was a flash of jealousy as she noticed the small spark and the smile that appeared on her face. "I'll give you two a moment," she said immediately taking her leave.

Charlie stands up, "Santana," she says glad to see her wife, "What are you doing here?" She asks, it wasn't like Santana showed up to work anymore. She couldn't even remember the last time that Santana had showed up. Maybe they were finally getting over their rough patch and things would finally return to some sense normalcy. She rubs her eyes as she moves to greet her wife properly. It was another packed day, she still had a live show to shoot later tonight with her sisters.

"I'm here to serve you," Santana manages to get out and she sees Charlie blink at this before that smile flashes across her face. It's the smile that she loves and she immediately feels herself getting worked up. She wants to cry and yell and ask her why things had broken between them. How they had gotten so bad. She's about to follow up with the statement by shoving the divorce papers into Charlie's hand.

"Is this one of those sex games?" Charlie asks seriously even she didn't have time for sex right now. She had to make sure her talking points were—on point or Frannie was going to eviscerate her. The Exchange, their flagship program, was what made the Edge so popular, three sisters on different sides of the political spectrum going at each other. It got personal at times, but with Frannie taking the right, Quinn taking the center and she took the left, it was the perfect way for honest political commentary. They always made sure they had the facts before they put the spin on it. They constantly got approximately five hundred thousand viewers for their live streams. Which lead to nearly fifteen thousand paid subscribers for some of their other programing. But the thought of Santana doing whatever sex thing she wanted is tempting enough to say screw it and wing it. "We don't have long—but I think if I took my lunch break now—" Santana pushes a manila envelope into her hands and Charlie pauses and looks at the envelope and then at Santana. "What's this?" Charlie asks opening the envelope and pulling the documents out.

"Divorce papers," Santana says her tone devoid of most emotion. She was simply stating a fact and she watches as a multitude of expressions flash across Charlie's face. "I thought I owed you a face to face with this, not sending some messenger—I know how things get lost on your desk." Santana waits for a reaction from Charlie. "Plus I didn't want you to call the police when you finally noticed that I was gone." It's a jab and she knows it is. She can't help making them. "I've moved out, and I attached the card of my lawyer on the papers. So when you do get your lawyer have them contact mine. I don't want this to be long and drawn out Charlie and I don't want this to get ugly. We're both adults, even if you fail to act like it sometimes, and I hope you and whoever you choose to defend you can act with dignity." Santana finishes.

"Divorce? Gone—? I know it's been rough lately—but this?" Charlie asks and looks at Santana who has already begun to move away from her and head out. "Santana, you can't just walk away from this—you can't just walk away from _me_." Charlie says moving to stop her but Santana pulls her wrist away and shoots her an annoyed look that has always managed to stop her in her tracks. "Santana—"

"It's hard to walk away from someone who already _left_ ," Santana says just as calmly. "Look Charlie we've already begun to go our separate ways. This just makes it official. I want to move on with my life—I have begun to move on with my life. Just like you have." All those late nights with Dani, did she think that she was an idiot? That she didn't notice how there was a lingering perfume all over her clothes?

"Moved on—who is she?" Charlie asks her temper flaring and jealousy rising. Not hearing the second part, she focused on the idea that someone else had touched her wife. Someone else could make her smile and it bothered her, it broke and tore at her heart. She felt betrayed, and for the first time she doesn't see Santana's ring on her finger. The one that she had busted her ass for. It was cheap, but it had all she could have afforded at the time. Now that she had money she had offered to replace it, something big something that wasn't that cheap but Santana had insisted that it was her favorite thing in the world. It floored her and she didn't know what to say or do. "Santana—" Charlie said taking another step towards her.

"Goodbye Charlie," Santana said before walking out. A part of her needs Charlie to come after her, it's silly and primal but it's what she wants. But like she expected Charlie doesn't chase after her and she can't help but shooting a glance backwards and Charlie is standing there in shock. She sighs and keeps her head held high, she's making the right choice for the both of them.

"Who is she?" Charlie says nearly choking over the words again, she doesn't care who hears her. She doesn't care if she's the office gossip.

Santana stays quiet for a moment placing a hand on her stomach slightly and swallows, "Isabela." She says and smiles mostly to herself but it's the last thing she says. She needs to leave now before they cause a scene and it's the last thing she wants. She once again holds her head held high and she nearly bumps into Dani Harper and even though Santana wants to kick her ass and quite possibly scratch her eyes out she smiles. "She's all yours." She waits until the elevator door closes before she breaks down. Tears streaming down her face and she lets out a choked sob.

Dani blinks in surprise and turns to Santana who walks out of the office and turns to looks at her boss who seems to be very close to exploding in anger. "Charlie?" She asks watching as Charlie looks at her for a moment and then closes the door. Dani pauses and immediately moves to her own desk to call someone—immediately dialing the extension to Quinn's assistant, she flinches when she hears a thump and she swallows. "Hey Kitty, I'm going to need you to send Quinn to Charlie's office _immediately_." Dani immediately ends the call and starts the call to Frannie's assistant.

* * *

Quinn glances at Dani and nods her head at her as she and Frannie move towards Charlie's office. She doesn't bother to knock, Dani had made it seem urgent and she blinks as she looks at the mess that is Charlie's usually pristine office. There are papers everywhere and her laptop and her identical twin is sitting in some sort of catatonic state in her chair slumped over, tears on her face. "Charlie?" Quinn says cautiously and looks at Frannie. "What happened?"

When Charlie doesn't answer in any sort of time, Frannie rolls her eyes and walks up to her youngest sister and turns her chair, so she can look at Charlie. "Charlie we have a show to shoot in an hour and whatever it is you need to snap out of it." Charlie doesn't look at her and Frannie sighs and looks at Quinn for a moment, before slapping Charlie hard across the face which seems to snap her out of it.

" _Frannie_!" Quinn snaps at her older sister and pulls her away from Charlie before moving to comfort Charlie who is now rubbing her cheek. "Okay Charlie what happened?" Quinn asks sighing as she patted Charlie's leg.

"Santana—she—" fresh tears and she can't believe it. Her words get choked up and she wants it to be better or maybe it's a dream or a nightmare that she'll wake up from. "I—she—"

Frannie groans they don't have time for Charlie's blubbering. She looks around the avalanche of paperwork and spots the notice of divorce on the table completely untouched. "Divorce." Frannie says blandly and Quinn turns to her and she nods towards the table.

"Santana is divorcing you?" Quinn asks flabbergasted, she hadn't seen that coming. Sure they had problems but—it's not like it was uncommon. Nothing that a vacation to some beach where they got to know each other again and got back on the same page couldn't fix. "Charlie—?" Charlie just cries harder and Quinn sighs and looks at Frannie who is already on the phone. Good, this was good she'd call their mother and things would be alright.

"Hello, is this Ryan, Howell and Del Monico law? I'd like to talk to the best divorce lawyer you have," Frannie said in a bored tone.

Quinn groaned, " _Frannie_." This wasn't helping _anyone_.

"She's going to need a divorce lawyer, a good one. There is a lot of money on the table here and Charlie owns a third of the company. I'm being a decent sister and making sure she's protected." Well the business was protected, honestly they had worked far too hard and sacrificed a lot to get their business off the ground, and she wasn't going to let a _divorce_ ruin it. Maybe if Charlie could have the two of them buy out her shares, temporarily to safeguard them. It was an idea it seemed slightly illegal but desperate times and all that.

Quinn sighed and patted Charlie's leg she wasn't going to be able to go on today and they would need to call in one of their guest hosts to fill in for her. They only had an hour to find someone, maybe someone from some of the other shows. "We'll figure it out Charlie. I promise."

Charlie can barely hear Quinn over the sound of her own sobbing. She'd known Santana since _high school_. They'd been together for nearly twelve years. Sure things were rough now but they had been great before and they could have been great again. How could things have gotten so messed up?


	2. Chapter Two: The Past

The very first day of high school was _terrifying_ , she really wanted to make a good impression and be popular. It hadn't exactly happened that way while back in junior high but this was what she wanted, and what she needed to happen. It was supposed to be a rebirth, at least that's what everyone else had said. She could be anyone that she wanted to be and the person that she wanted to be was the person who was in charge of the school. That way no one would ever mess with her.

Santana exhaled as she studied the classroom quickly, there wasn't that many spots left and she didn't want to sit next to the mouth-breather, or the guy with the dopey looking face. Though there was a space next to the two identical twins. They were even wearing the same matching outfits and it was slightly off-putting. But compared with her other two options it was certainly better. She moved to take a seat beside one of them and pulled out her notebook trying not to listen to their conversation.

"This is _your fault_."

"My fault? I don't want people to mistake us for each other. Or think that we're the Grady Twins from the Shining! How are we supposed to make friends Quinn?"

"You watched the Shining?" Santana asks interrupting them and she bites her lip as they both in unison turn to her. Creepy as _fuck_. "You two need to stop doing that. It's creepy and _weird_." Santana said immediately. One of the twins immediately smiled at her and stuck out her hand. Santana looked at the hand and then at one of the creepy twins and reached out and shook it. "Santana Lopez." Santana said, making friends wasn't that hard.

"I'm Charlie Fabray," Charlie said with a smile. Santana was by far the most beautiful girl in their class so far. "We don't normally dress like this, but our mom thought it'd be cute and she started to get all weepy this morning about how her girls were growing up to fast." Charlie explains to Santana. She ignores the sound of Quinn clearing her throat until she coughs loudly. "You should get some water for that Quinn."

Santana tries not to laugh watching as the twin named Quinn rolled her eyes, maybe they wouldn't be so bad to have as friends. "Santana."

Quinn glances at Santana and nods. "Quinn." She says and shakes her head as she watches Charlie turn to her and gives her a look. The look. She shakes her head if Charlie wants to go back to making a fool of herself it's none of her business. She returns to people watching, sizing everyone up. It's a good thing they know like half the class already. Frannie had been extremely popular, when she had gone here and she wanted to make sure that they were _more_ popular. She pauses when a short girl who is dressed in an argyle sweater with an owl on it enters the room and she smacks Charlie's arm. "See, I _told_ you that there was going to be _someone."_

Charlie looks up, slightly annoyed at Quinn for a moment but spots the girl who is at the front looking for a seat. She can't help but tilt her head, because as bad as their mother is—she isn't that bad. In fact if they had ever decided to wear something like that to school she'd think she failed as a mother. Charlie shrugs, and

Charlie looks up slightly annoyed at Quinn for a moment but spots the girl who is looking for a seat and tilts her head. Very short skirt and an argyle sweater with some sort of bird on it and she relaxes for a moment. Though even though she looks like her parents dressed her in clothes from the children's section at the mall, she still seems to be very sure of herself. Charlie shrugs and smiles at Santana. "So you just moved here?" Charlie asks, and she's met with a nod. "Well I can show you around if you'd like? And introduce you to a few people." Charlie offers.

Santana pauses for a moment and smiles, Charlie seems really friendly and she really does want to get this friend thing out of the way. "Sure, I just have to ask my parents," Santana says.

Charlie grins widely and is about to say something when someone tosses their bag onto her desk with a loud thud and she looks up and pauses and scrunches up her face because he looks familiar and she pauses for a second. "What the _hell_ did you do to your hair?" Charlie asks and Quinn turns.

" _Puck_?" Quinn asks in equal shock.

Puck flashed them both a pleased smile, "Like it?" He said running a hand through his hair. He looks at Quinn. "Now will you go out with me?"

Quinn snorts derisively at this but smiles and shakes her head. Even though he's older than them by a year, he's still like the little brother she _really_ didn't ask for. "No Puck."

Puck look at Charlie and flashes his most charming smile, Charlie rolls her eyes at him. "We could be _the_ power couple come on Charlie, don't you want to ride the Puckasaurus?"

"I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth," Charlie says dryly and Quinn begins to laugh at this, ignoring the flush on his cheeks.

Puck huffs and is about to give up when he catches sight of Santana and he puts on one of his charming smiles. "Noah Puckerman at your service," he said winking at her. "Resident badass, and a lover of beautiful women." He held out his hand ignoring the very dark look Charlie was giving him.

Santana looked at him he was decent looking and he seemed to have a decent sense of humor, "Santana Lopez," she flashed him a hesitant smile.

Charlie looked between the two of them and her heart dropped a bit, because it was _Puck_ of all people in the world. It was _Puck_ , with his stupid haircut and his dumb charming face, and his compliments. A part of her wanted to point out that it was _Puck._ But she didn't want to be _that_ person, and besides it just meant that Santana would never be interested in her even if she had the right equipment. That didn't mean that she couldn't be friends because having Puck as a friend usually ended up with the three of them in trouble. She fiddles with her binder instead and watches as their teacher finally enters the classroom. She leans back and is about to say something when Santana touches her arm. "Yeah?"

"Puck's cute right?" Santana asks her, she's not really interested but from his bragging about making the football team it's something to pay attention to. "You're not interested in him are you?"

Charlie forces a smile onto her face, "Puck? No—he's like our brother." And a chronic womanizer, but she couldn't say that without having Santana mistakenly thinking that she liked him. "Are we still on for later though? You can sit with me and Quinn at lunch if you want?" Charlie offers, as their teacher writes her name on the board.

Santana flashes a grateful smile at Charlie, hoping that she's found a friend. "That sounds nice," Santana says and relaxes she had been worried over nothing and she finally turns her attention to their teacher. Ms. Holly Holiday.

"So let's talk about extra-curricular activities."

* * *


	3. Chapter Three: The Present

Her hands felt heavy as she bit her lip and moved her key to the door. A part of her was praying that this was all some sort of prank. Something that would hurt for a few seconds but she'd be okay, they'd be okay. Even if it was a wakeup call that she could lose Santana forever if she didn't change her ways. Then she'd do it, she'd change her ways and be the perfect partner. She just _couldn't_ lose her. She didn't want to loser her.

Judy sighed as she placed her hand on Charlie's back, trying to comfort her daughter. "Charlie, you know you don't have to stay here by yourself if you don't want to. Quinn offered you their spare bedroom and you know how much Beth loves her Aunt Charlie around. I'm sure she'll do everything to make you smile again." Judy rubbed Charlie's back when her daughter didn't even look up. "Of course if you want you can come home and stay as long as you want. The house is far too big for _just_ me and I miss having my girls around." Judy adds when she's once again rewarded with Charlie's silence. It made Judy uneasy. Charlie hadn't said anything after the show either. A show which she had been forced to complete because they couldn't find someone else last minute to take Charlie's place. Several times during the show, Quinn had needed to regulate hard to keep Charlie within the realms of reason.

She only _sort of_ heard her mother's words as she fiddled with her keys. It was strange how even something as innocuous as keys would make her think of her wife. But truthfully with how many time she had accidentally locked herself out and needed to call Santana to bail her out, it was to be expected. She wanted to be alone—that wasn't quite true. She wanted Santana, and barring that happening she really just wanted to be alone. She needed to figure out what had gone wrong so she could fix it and put the pieces back together. Things had been rough lately, but it wasn't _call-it-quits_ rough. She still loved and needed Santana. She couldn't think of a good reason why she hadn't been showing that even if they _had_ been fighting. Charlie hears her mother speaking again, it sounds like one of those old time cartoons where when the adults talk it's just a muted trombone. "I'll be fine mom." Charlie says as she finally gets the door open, she pushes it open and even though the entrance way looks _exactly_ the same she can already tell the house just looks empty. She blinks back the tears that are already threatening to fall. She needs her mom to leave. She just wants to be left alone.

Judy slips on a sad smile as she wraps an arm around Charlie's waist giving her a quick comforting squeeze. "I know you'll be fine Charlie. A divorce—I know it's difficult but it's not the end of the world Charlie. Even if you feel like it is, even if you feel like a failure right now, you _aren't_. I know how difficult it was when your father and I divorced." Judy said, it wasn't the same she had her children and even though she suspected Frannie had never quite forgiven her for the divorce it had needed to happen. But Charlie was just shy of thirty, she could still find someone else, she could still find another love of her life. She was still beautiful, she was successful and she had it mostly figured out. Well she before this she did.

Of course she had failed, she had failed in being Santana's partner, she hadn't noticed her wife was with someone behind her back. She _had failed_. Charlie turns she doesn't want her mother seeing her break down and she hugs her. "I did fail. Santana fell in love with someone else," Charlie says tossing her briefcase onto the ground. "How is that not a failure on _my part_?" Charlie asks her mother. It's rhetorical and she doesn't really _want_ an answer she just wants to be left alone.

Judy enters the apartment with Charlie bending over to adjust the briefcase, "Charlie you didn't fail." She wants to give her daughter tips, she wants to tell her to check her accounts to make sure that she's _protected_ , that she hasn't _lost_ everything. It's what had happened to her.

Charlie's anger sparks, because it's some silly little platitude that's supposed to make her feel better. It's not reality. "Santana served me _divorce papers at work_." Charlie hisses at her mother. Her emotions are once again in turmoil and she has to take a deep breath to reign it in. She wants to cry and yell and scream—but what she really wants is for Santana to crawl up beside her like she normally did and let her just cry and tell her that everything was going to be okay, that they'd be okay. "I didn't think it was _this_ bad! And I can't for the life of me figure out what I did or I missed or how I hurt her to have it get to this point."

Judy's heart breaks for her daughter and she pulls her into a hug, ignoring Charlie's desperate attempts for freedom. She ignores her and like every single time that she had comforted Charlie in the past she just holds her tightening her arms so Charlie can't escape. "Sometimes, two people just fall out of love. Or one person falls out in love with the other person. I know how—insane it sounds, I know how impossible it is. But sometimes you just outgrow someone and I know it's not what you want to hear. I know you want me to tell you _why_ it happened but I don't know and it's something that you're going to hopefully have a conversation with Santana. Maybe one day you can be friends in the future?"

The idea that one day she and Santana would just be friends again sounds even worse than her current situation. She doesn't want to just be friends with _her_ wife. She wants her wife back. Her mother isn't offering her any helpful information like how to win Santana back or how to fix it. She just seems resigned to the fact that this is happening. She needed solutions. She wanted this, whatever this was, to be just a blip on the radar and in a few years they'd look back at this and laugh. "Santana is my _wife_ , she belongs at my side. She's supposed to be the mother of _my_ children. There is no _being friends with her_." Charlie snaps and pulls away from her mother stumbling backwards. Her mother needed to leave. She needed to have people who were going to help her get her wife back. Charlie exhales and rights herself up plastering on a neutral face. "I'll be fine mom. I will be, I just need—I need some space and I need to figure things out. If I need you I'll call you, but right now I just need to—be alone." Charlie says. Hopefully her mother gets the hint.

Judy sighs, wondering why all her children insisted on being so head strong that they couldn't even just take their mother's love. "I don't think you should be alone right now—at least not in this house. I know how much you may want to call her, or go find her or show up at her office tomorrow. But you need to respect her space and her privacy. Whatever the reason is, she served you with divorce papers and you can't—make a scene even if you want to. You need to be an adult in this Charlie even if you _really_ don't want to. Because I have no doubt that Santana won't hesitate to hit you with a restraining order." Charlie makes a face at this, and Judy hesitates unsure if she just leave. "My door is open Charlie, so if you need anything, just come over or call and I'll be here." Judy said hugging her daughter once more before hesitating once again and leaving Charlie alone.

Charlie closes the door behind her mother and exhales as she goes to the kitchen and she looks around, it still looks _normal_. Everything looks normal, and a part of her hopes that she'll just find Santana asleep on the bed or the couch or something. But she's not on the couch. All the decorations that they had put up together are still there. Charlie bites her lip trying to stop herself from crying yet again. Her head already pounds from all the crying that she did earlier. She's about to move when she notices that one of the pictures that had been on the end table is missing. It's the one of their wedding and Santana pushing a piece of cake and mostly icing against her lips smearing her face and chin while laughing. Happier times. It's a good sign isn't it? That Santana hasn't just left all the memories with her and she goes to look for anything else that's missing she stops outside of the bedroom—their bedroom and exhales before she pushes the door open. The bedroom looks fine at first glance, and for a moment her heart is relieved. It's only a moment because the moment she steps inside the spacious master bedroom she gets a glimpse of Santana's side of the closet, which is empty.

Charlie moves to the closet and this time even though she's sure she's cried all she could cry for the day it's a fresh wave of tears, and she's so glad that no one is there to witness it. But Santana's clothes are gone and she's left some of the things that she 'borrowed'. Her giant hoodie that she 'borrowed' with no intention of ever giving back was the sole thing hanging there and Charlie wishes she hadn't made such a big deal about the stupid piece of clothing though it had been mostly gentle teasing. She wasn't going to wear it. It looked much better on Santana especially knowing that Santana frequently wore _nothing_ else underneath it. She sighs and looks over at her side of the closet and pauses for a second because there are some of her shirts missing and her favorite new superman hoodie is gone. That brings a small smile to her lips even with the tears, which she quickly wipes away. She exhales she can sit in here and cry and bawl and eat ice cream until she's absolutely _sick_ or she can figure out a way to get her wife back. Not with huge romantic gestures because Santana always hated those but with small ones that meant something to her. Charlie heads back out and goes to her office and grabs a pen and paper and writes in big block letters.

_OPERATION GET SANTANA BACK_

She stares at the blank piece of paper and realizes she has very little idea how to go about it, she doesn't even know where it went wrong to begin with.

* * *

Alma Lopez stared at her granddaughter for a long moment, you didn't get divorces where she came from unless it was the direst of circumstances. It's what she had hoped to pass onto her granddaughter and she thought she had even if none of the other lessons took. Though what did she think was going to happen playing house with another woman? "Did she beat you?"

Santana sighed, she hadn't wanted to answer any questions. She had just wanted to seek refuge with her parents while she figured out her next step. Her father hadn't asked any questions while he had helped her move and pack her things. She hadn't thought this through not completely, she had just found out about the pregnancy about a week ago and had only made plans for the week. "No, Charlie never laid a hand on me." Santana says with a sigh when her abuela hits her with a look. How could she have forgotten that her abula had moved in with her parents? Honestly all she wanted to do was curl up in the hoodie that smelled like her wife and pretend that it was Charlie's arms around her, while trying to forget about that look on Charlie's face when she had finally realized what was going on. The hurt and the anguish.

Alma was grateful that it was nothing as serious as that, but she needed to know you didn't just up and quit your marriage, even if she truly didn't believe it was a legitimate relationship to begin with. Santana had still made vows to another person, and you didn't just quit because it got hard. "Does she have a gambling problem? Or is she on the drugs?" Alma pressed.

"No, of course not—I thought you didn't even like Charlie," Santana says. She had been the most vocal about how this marriage was a terrible idea. It didn't help that Charlie came from a broken home, or that she wasn't rich enough to support the two of them, and her abuela thought that she didn't have much career prospects. She was supposed to marry a doctor like her father, someone who brought in a lot of money. Though Russell Fabray was wealthy Charlie and Quinn had never touched a dime of their father's money, much to his general irritation.

"I _don't_ ," Alma said bluntly, because she truly didn't. She thought Santana could do better, though she had to grudgingly admit that Charlie _had_ made something of herself and she was a hard worker. She did have to _respect_ that even if she personally believed that Santana would be better off with a proper man, or at the very least a _proper_ woman none of this in between nonsense that she spouted. Thank goodness that they hadn't brought a child into the mix that child would have been very confused. "But you know you don't just _quit_ a marriage, not when you make a vow before god." Another reason she didn't like Charlie. She was sure the girl was some sort of atheist.

Santana groaned, it was a point of contention with her abuela that they didn't have some big church wedding. There were many points of contention with her abuela. "We've been fighting a lot, and I think that she's having some sort of affair with her secretary. Her clothes they smell like her sometimes, like it lingers and I caught them earlier today she was draped all over Charlie when I came to deliver the divorce papers." Her abuela is giving her a blank stare and Santana looks at her confused as to why she isn't more upset.

"And?" Alma prompts and Santana gives her a look. "She has a few indiscretions here and there, at the end of the day she's coming home to _you_. You have money, you have food, you have a nice apartment security and she could have given you a _family_ , a proper one not the ones that you wanted to adopt." Santana makes a face at this but Alma continues. "It's how things are _done_ Santana, your grandfather was the exact same. So long as she is discrete and you are discrete I see no problem. You made a vow."

Santana's jaw drops, of all the sexist bullshit she's heard her grandmother spout that has to be the most offensive thing she's said. But she's old and arguing with her is like pulling teeth sometimes, and she thought she was helping. A part of her wondered if her father had the same attitude. Santana takes a breath to calm herself before she speaks. "I want to be happy. I can't remember the last time I was happy with her. Al we do is fight, and argue, and every word out of my mouth to her these days is a snide remark and I can't even help it. We haven't even slept in the same bed for weeks she doesn't even try she just goes to the couch and there is no _fixing_ it." Santana takes a breath because she's getting worked up and she doesn't want to. She has someone else to think about, but it makes her mad that Charlie gave up, it makes her mad that she's giving up. "I can't raise a child in a home like this, where there isn't love and respect." Santana says finally. "I have to put _her_ first."

Alma pauses for a moment and looks downward at Santana's still flat stomach and then back at Santana. "A child—you're pregnant?" Santana nods and a smile breaks out on Alma's face, it's a miracle she had given up hope on ever seeing great grandchildren, by the time she was Santana's age she had already had three sons. Alma pauses because she personally didn't even think it was possible. "Is it hers?" Suddenly the divorce made sense it couldn't be Charlie's.

Santana looks borderline scandalized at the notion that she was the one that cheated. Even if she had implied it as such. In the past eleven years she had only been with her wife. "Of course it's _hers_." Alma gives her a curious look and Santana sighs. "She doesn't know."

"Santana, I may not like her, but you _must_ tell her about it." Alma said, horrified that her granddaughter would bear this particular cross alone.

"A child isn't a bargaining chip. I just found out last week—we weren't even trying and this wasn't supposed to happen. But it has and nothing I can do will change it. But this baby can't be the reason we're together. I deserve happiness—she deserves to be happy. The way our relationship is right now that in a few years, I'm going to wake up one day or she's going to wake up one day and the only thing we're going to have is bitterness. And I refuse for my child—our child to grow up in that environment." They would always be tied together and she wasn't going to stop Charlie from having a role in Isabela's life. Charlie wanted kids, she loved kids but Isabela wasn't what was going to save them. They just didn't fit anymore—even if she truly wanted them to. They just needed to be adults about this.

"Being in a relationship is _difficult_ , even your grandfather and I had very difficult patches but I loved him. You work through them, you don't just give up because it got too hard. That's not how your parents raised you. You _love_ her, you work through it. You do what it takes, not just for the two of you but for my great granddaughter."

Santana looks away, it wasn't that easy. They didn't fit together anymore and trying to force them together was just going to lead to bitterness and resentment. They were both far too broken. And she couldn't even pinpoint what it was that broke them. Something was missing and she couldn't figure out what it was anymore and she doubted that they'd ever be whole let alone get on the same page again. It was strange she could usually pinpoint the reason why they were fighting and a small smile crosses her lips it was generally _Charlie's_ fault. But it always got better but only because she _knew_ what had gone wrong to begin with so she knew how to fix it.


	4. Chapter 4

Santana Lopez stormed into the newspaper clubroom, where Charlie was currently going over the next issue of the school newspaper and eating a sandwich, and dropped her own lunch one of the empty tables angrily causing her to look up at her. " _Fuckerman is a sleazebag!_ " Santana said angrily. She was met with Charlie raising an eyebrow very much like Quinn had done and then going straight back to her lunch. Santana let out a low frustrated sigh. Some friends they were, they were supposed to be just as outraged as she was. "He was cheating with another one of the cheerleaders!" Charlie took another bite of her sandwich and Santana saw red. " _Charlie_."

Charlie groaned, she may have a not so secret crush on Santana since the first day she met her, but she was getting sick and tired of hearing Puck's name leave Santana's lips. They had become close over the months, they practically did everything together which only made her current predicament much worse. "If I remember correctly, Quinn told you from day one that Noah Puckerman was a 'habitual womanizer' who used women and then got rid of them."

Santana made a face at this, this was exactly what Quinn had said when she had gone to Quin to vent. "Yes I _know_ _that_." She didn't need to be reminded that she gave her virginity to some creep, after a bit of pressure at some silly party that she had gone to.

Charlie chewed on her sandwich a bit before putting it down and taking a sip of her juice box. "If I remember correctly I was right there agreeing with everything my sister said about the subject. You then later accused me of having a crush on Noah Puckerman of all people," Charlie said, and since that day she had generally kept out of it. Letting Quinn do all the talking and criticizing.

Santana rolled her eyes she was _sure_ that Charlie had a crush on him, there was absolutely no reason why Charlie was generally scathing towards him, and usually shoved him away. Charlie's older sister had confirmed it by saying that Charlie had the emotional awareness of a seven year old. Which made sense. Truthfully she would never foist Puck on Charlie. At this point she wouldn't even give him to her worst enemy and she had thought about it. "Charlie it's _okay_ to like him—well apart from the fact that it's _Noah Puckerman_. I'm not mad at you for liking him—he's charming _sometimes_."

Charlie groaned they'd had this conversation a million times, at this point she was sure they'd have this conversation a million more times. "I'm not in love with Noah Puckerman. You couldn't even pay me enough to kiss him." Charlie said making a face at the very idea and Santana rolled her eyes. "I'm _serious_ Santana. I like someone else."

"You treat him like dirt and Frannie says that you have the emotional maturity of a seven year old." Santana said haughtily not buying it for a second. "I'm like your best friend Charlie, you're supposed to tell me who you like. I promise I won't call them a hobbit to their faces when I meet them."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, she was rethinking this whole crush on Santana thing she was awfully dense. Like she was super smart in everything else but this was beyond dense. "I like someone else," Charlie repeats again slowly hoping that's the end of it.

Santana grumbles, she wants to know everything and this is on the list of things that she needs to know. It's almost irritating that she can't make fun of Charlie for who she liked. She smirks finally figuring a way to smoke Charlie out. "It's Finn isn't it?" Santana watches as Charlie's mouth drops, a mixture of horror and disgust on her face. "It totally _is_. Holy shit Charlie you like _Lurch_. Well maybe if he thinks you like him he'll stop following the hobbit around like a lost puppy."

"I don't like Finn!" Charlie says getting annoyed. How could Santana think she liked Finn of all people he was a lumbering _idiot_ who made Puck look like Einstein.

"Sure you don't," Santana teased and watched as Charlie looked about ready to crack and she smiled. Charlie wasn't an idiot. She approached Charlie and gently prodded her side causing Charlie to swat her hand away. " _Tell me!_ Or I'm going to tell everyone that you have a massive crush on Finn Hudson."

Charlie scowled at this, she _really_ needed to rethink this whole crush on Santana thing, but she'd show her. Charlie turned tilting her head and pressed lips against Santana's who froze in shock. Charlie kept the kiss firm, and it took a second before Charlie was about to pull away when Santana started to kiss back. It was only for a split second before she was forcefully shoved backwards. Charlie blinked and touched her lips for a second before immediately turning a bright red, and turning back to the work she was supposed to be working on. "I don't have a crush on Puck or Finn or any of the guys—just you." Charlie mumbles under her breath.

There's a little part of Santana that feels incredibly thrilled at this idea but she pulls away and immediately looks around. "Charlie I have a boyfriend," She regrets it almost immediately when she sees the hurt cross Charlie's face. "We can't."

"So dump him. Puck will _be_ okay. He has put his penis in _half the_ female population at the school already." Treating Santana better than Puck had treated would be a piece of cake. If anything they'd have to deal with Puck talking about joining them for a threesome.

"I—I can't." Santana says thinking about what her abuela would say in this matter.

"Are you seriously telling me that you'd rather date _Noah Puckerman_ than me?" Charlie asks.

At this point Finn Hudson was looking more appealing than Puck, but Santana nods. "I do like him and he's not—terrible all the time," Santana says. "Look I'm sorry I pushed you but you're my friend Charlie and I need you to be _my_ friend. Can you do that?" Charlie doesn't answer she just busies herself with the work in front of her and Santana gently prods Charlie. "Charlie? I just don't feel that way about you and I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Charlie said after a moment. She feels like a loser. She lost out to _Puck_ of all people. Santana would rather date Puck than her. Her ego is bruised and she wants to cry just a bit, but if Quinn found out she'd be labelled a cry baby for the rest of her life, and there is no way that she wants to cry in front of Santana. "I need to finish this for the school paper—it's like super important."

Santana feels bad and she wishes she could take it back the ribbing, she had ruined a friendship and Charlie had been the first person at this stupid high school to be nice to her and treat her like a person. She _liked_ goofing off with her. "Charlie."

"I just need some space Santana," Charlie said immediately. "So can you please just _leave_?"

Santana makes a face, how was she the bad guy in all of this? She was the one that should be upset, one of her closest friends was in love with her, and she's deathly afraid that she's going to lose Charlie as a friend. "Charlie—I really don't want to lose you as a friend."

Charlie sighs, it's a terrible idea to just be Santana's friend. She should pull away a bit until she's over her. "Santana my ego is terribly bruised, and I just need some time," Charlie says looking at her.

Santana gives her a small smile, "Take all the time you need." Once Charlie was finally over her, she'd help her find someone else and then everything could go back to normal.

* * *

Charlie placed her books in her locker and grabbed her books for the next class, she closed her locker and turned jumping back in surprise. It had only been two days of ignoring Santana's existence, two days. "Santana?"

"Time's up," Santana announces that had been difficult with all the amount of time that they spent on the phone together, and the time they spent around each other. She missed Charlie and two days was _plenty_ of time. "I'm going to help you find a girlfriend."

"You're going to what?" Charlie asks.

"Help you get over me by finding you a new girlfriend." Santana repeats slowly and wraps her arm around Charlie's pulling her with her. "You're taking too long," Santana informs Charlie bluntly. "I'm not going to wait for you to take a year to get over me. I know how difficult it is."

Charlie rolled her eyes, "Keep talking you're doing an excellent job in convincing me that I lost my mind to begin with," Charlie snips at Santana who flashes her a smile. Charlie rolls her eyes but finally nods. "Fine, you can find me a girlfriend." Charlie says because she really missed having Santana around and this seemed like fun and it would probably help her get over Santana.


	5. Chapter 5

Santana slammed her hand on the annoying alarm clock that was in her old bedroom. She couldn't even remember the last time that she had used an actual alarm clock, Charlie was always awake at this time. Usually in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands reading a newspaper. The house would smell like a fresh brewed cup of coffee. It was actually pretty good, and she missed it because it seemed no one in her family could brew a proper cup of coffee and she hated the single serving cups. Santana sighed, Charlie hadn't noticed that she wasn't drinking her usual two cups in the morning.

Santana made a face as she stared at her old ceiling trying desperately not to think of her wife—her soon to be ex-wife. She didn't want to think about all the good times, it would only make this break so much harder. So she focused on all the annoying things Charlie had done like stealing her food of her plate, her feet were always freezing when she got into bed. Charlie _ate_ in bed, she hogged all the sheets. Santana bit her lip this wasn't working nearly as well as she wanted it to work. She wasn't filled with rage she _missed_ those things. The things that hadn't been done in weeks because Charlie wasn't sleeping in her bed.

Truthfully she didn't even know when it happened. That she lost her wife, it was casual and she hadn't thought anything about it until it was too late. A new secretary, it was no big deal, the company had been expanding and Charlie had way too many things to do so a personal assistant was necessary. She had thought that Dani was a man and had paid no mind to Charlie talking about her non-stop about how Dani was a life-saver. It had become Dani this and Dani that, with every conversation but that hadn't been a problem because Charlie had never _ever_ shown any interest in men. She hadn't felt threatened.

Even finding out that she was a woman, hadn't been that devastating to their relationship she hadn't suspected that Charlie was cheating, until recently with her clothes smelling like that _cheap_ perfume and the car. The car had really been the last straw, sure they had money now, and they could afford a purchase like that, but they were supposed to buy a car together. A _sensible_ car, one that was safe so that they could start growing their family. But Charlie had come home with a mid-life crises car, one that was worth more than her salary. One that had only _two_ seats—and Charlie couldn't understand why she was furious. She had picked something that Dani had said would make her look good.

"Santana? Are you going to need a ride to work?" Maribel asked after knocking on her door.

Santana relaxed hearing the sound of her mother's voice, they still hadn't had the conversation but she imagined that her grandmother had spilled the news. She could practically _hear_ the excitement in her mother's voice and she was sure that her father was lingering around. "I think, I'll just take the subway into work today."

There was loud whispering outside her door, "Your father says that he doesn't mind being late, but he'll drive you to work."

Santana groaned, she was pregnant not an invalid she didn't want her parents fussing all over her, but arguing with them would just be a pain in her ass. They were her parents and she could already tell that it was killing them that she hadn't just come out and said it. "Thanks dad," she said with a shake of her head as she got up and she opened one of the suitcases. She frowned, she would need to find her own place though she wasn't quite sure if her parents would allow her to live on her own.

* * *

Quinn frowned when Charlie opened the door to the staff meeting and she bit her lip, because Charlie was most definitely wearing the same clothes as yesterday. It didn't even look like she had slept, "Charlie—what are you doing. We said you could take some time off," their mother had chewed them out to no end about making Charlie do the show when her life was _clearly_ in shambles. She looked at everyone else and shot them a withering look daring them to say anything.

"I need to work," Charlie said pulling out a seat and taking it, not bothering to look up. She couldn't stay in the apartment during the day she had begun to look through wedding pictures and the tears had started up again.

Frannie looked up at Charlie from where she had been going over the news that they were supposed to discuss on the show and she frowned. "You look like _shit_ ," she said bluntly.

" _Frannie_." Quinn admonished immediately before turning to Charlie, the last thing they needed was the two of them going at it. But Charlie was ignoring Frannie and everyone else and was looking at a notepad that had various scratches and her scrawl all over it. "Charlie—did you sleep last night?" Quinn asked. Again Charlie ignored her and she shot a look at Frannie.

"One would think that you'd be doing everything in your power to work things out with Santana. Because we all know that if that doesn't work you're going to die miserable and alone. Plus you really don't want her devastating your finances. Because I am _not_ bailing you out." Frannie said.

"I have a plan—I just need to hammer out the details," Charlie said finally looking up.

Quinn relaxed a bit she wouldn't have to get involved after all. "A plan that involves you on your hands and knees and begging her not to leave you?" Frannie drawls and watches with amusement as Charlie turns a bright red.

Quinn stares at her twin and groans, " _That's_ your plan?"

"I said I need to hammer out the details!" Charlie says defensively and she bites the end of her pen and looks around the room, before out her first idea. She pauses for a second as she taps the second idea. "Can I borrow my niece?"

Quinn stares at Charlie, "I am not letting you use my daughter for whatever crazy ill-thought out plan you have. I love you I want you to be happy but you're not using Beth."

Charlie makes a face at this and scratches her second plan which was just a poorly thought out version of the first one with using Beth's adorableness in a way to convince Santana to come home. "If you're going to hammer my ideas the least you can do is give me a new one."

"Have you tried talking to her?" Quinn suggested.

"I called her like twenty times last night and left a bunch of messages," Charlie says as if it's obvious.

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Not on the _phone_. In person. Have you talked to her in person? I mean I'm not saying go everyday but maybe on her lunch break and talk to her? I mean you deserve at least a conversation right?" Quinn said looking around the room and meeting a bunch of nods.

"She doesn't want to see me, and I don't want her to put a restraining order on me."

"Which she will if you go see her dressed like that. If you want to convince your wife to come back home, you want to look your best. You do _not_ want to look like you're in some kind of meltdown, or a crazy person. So I suggest you go _home_ sleep, shower, comb your hair put on something _nice_ , something that you know she can't resist you in." Frannie said.

Charlie looks up, "I could kiss you."

"Please don't," Frannie said making a face at the very idea.

"I said could," Charlie said as she got up wobbling a bit as her exhaustion hits and she shakes it off. "I just need to take a quick nap." She waved at the rest of the staff and stumbled out of the room.

Quinn glanced around the room as everyone watched Charlie leave, "So are we going to talk about yet another cop killing or do you want to go light and talk about the elections?"

* * *

Charlie had a hard time not touching her perfectly blown out hair, she needed to keep it together, because she wanted Santana to miss her. To miss her and _want_ her, it would at least give her an opening to _talk_ to Santana. Charlie adjusted her vest, and looked at herself in the mirror before unbuttoning it slowly. It looked better that way. So maybe coming back so she could 'borrow' the company's resources and get her hair and makeup done was a grey area which she was sure that Frannie would bitch at her for later. But she wanted to look stunning for Santana and this was the best way. She adjusted her tie once more.

"Charlie?" Dani said knocking on the door and causing Charlie to look up at her. She swallowed because Charlie looked her best, wearing all white with a greyish-vest and that blue tie. Even her makeup was done to perfection which only enhanced her hazel eyes.

"Santana always takes a late lunch, but if I don't go now I'll miss it," Charlie said moving to grab a jacket. She just needed to get from the office to Santana's office without spilling something on herself, wearing all white was a hassle but it needed to be done.

Dani moved forward and touched Charlie's collar helping her straighten it out, "I'm sure you're going to get things all worked up with your wife." She pauses for a second it's almost perfect and with a finger she loosens Charlie's blue tie and unbuttons the first button. "There, you look stunning." Charlie smiles at this flashing her that adorable smile of hers and Dani is surprised when Charlie hugs her gratefully.

"You're about the only person who is helping me try and get my wife back. I _owe_ you," Charlie says seriously. If this didn't work then she'd be fucked.

Dani frowns ever so slightly but Charlie doesn't notice it as she's looking for her keys, so she can leave. "I really hope things work out with your wife," she doesn't mean it but Charlie smiles at her again and finds her keys in her coat pocket.

"I hope so. I mean I got _incredibly_ lucky." Charlie admits. How could she have let it slip out of her fingers? Like Santana was always a bit out of her league, but she had managed to convince her that marriage was a good idea.

"Well I think that she got incredibly lucky too," Dani throws in. To lucky, she had seen how unhappy Charlie had been lately and maybe this divorce was for the best. She wouldn't be sleeping on the couch anymore that was for sure. Sure Charlie would be unhappy now, but in a year or two she'd find someone else—someone better—maybe her and things would be made right with the world. Charlie nods towards her and heads to the door.

"I'll be back later, hopefully with this divorce nonsense behind us." Charlie calls over her shoulder and relaxes a bit.

* * *

Santana exhaled and massaged her temples feeling the headache coming already, though she's not sure if it's because of the lack of caffeine or because of how hectic her day is. She enjoys it though, even if there is paperwork that is threatening to fall off her desk at any moment. Yesterday's unplanned visit hadn't done much to help the fact that she was weeks behind in her paperwork. She's got a few meetings for the rest of the day and she has to somehow figure out how to start eating better while at work. Her diet is absolutely horrendous at times especially when she's swamped with work the way she has been.

It's good though, being busy. It helps her not think about the fact that her personal life is in _shambles_. She sighs and looks up wondering when her sandwich from the deli across the street is coming because she's starving as well. She looks at the new federal regulations and groans, it's like they don't even care that there are far too many rules as it is. Not to mention they are completely understaffed. Budget cuts or something ridiculous like that. There's a knock on her door and she smiles hoping it's the delivery guy, and she reaches for her purse. "Come in," she calls out as she begins to pull out bills. Money was going to be tight for a while with lawyer fees and finding a new apartment and moving costs, and maybe she should start bringing a bagged lunch to work.

"I already paid for your lunch," Charlie said placing the sandwich down on the table in front of her, she watches as Santana's head whips up and stares at her. Charlie rubs her arm and studies Santana for a long moment.

Santana freezes as she looks at Charlie's outfit and she's even wearing the heels to give her that extra height that she loves so much, it's been six weeks and it's an outfit that was specifically tailored to turn her on. She hated the fact that it didn't stop her mind from wandering. _Six weeks_. "Charlie." She said flicking her eyes to her wife. "What are you doing here?"

Charlie's throat goes dry and she begins to fidget she had this all planned out in her head and it seemed rather silly. She'd say come home and then Santana would just—come home. This was a _terrible_ idea. "I—want you to come home Santana. _Please_. Whatever _this_ is, we'll figure it out like we always have. I don't know what I did that made you think that this was the answer—and I'm _sorry_. Please just come home. If you want to go to couples counselling, I'll do it. I'll even get rid of the car—just please _come home_. We can talk about it and I swear I'll listen. I don't even care about that girl, what I want is _you_." Charlie moves to touch Santana's hand. " _Please_."

Santana swallows as she looks at Charlie, "You shouldn't be here Charlie and—" Charlie's eyes water and Santana stops talking and closes her eyes and counts to three, thinking about their child. "Charlie. We _can't_."

Charlie frowns, "I'll cut back my hours, I'll use up all my vacation days, we can work it out Santana. Just _please_ give us another chance." Charlie moves closer to Santana and bends down on one knee after adjusting her chair so she can kneel before her. " _Please_."

For a split moment Santana is going to say yes, her wife is hurting, and she hurts to but as she leans forward she smells it once again. That god awful perfume that Dani wears and she pulls back her anger reaching its boiling point because how dare Charlie come in here smelling like _her_. "Leave."

Charlie looks bewildered for a moment she could have sworn that Santana was going to say yes that everything was going to be okay. "Santana—I just—"

"You need to _leave_." Santana repeats pulling her chair back and taking her hand from Charlie's. "If you want to contact me then you're going to need to go through my lawyer." Santana says firmly, but Charlie doesn't move and Santana frowns at this. "Speaking of which I don't want much from you. I don't want alimony, I don't want the apartment or the car, and despite what I'm _sure_ Frannie thinks I don't want your company. I really just want a clean break, and a lump sum which is money that I put into the relationship to begin with. I don't want to fight with you anymore Charlie. So _please_ don't make me and don't drag this out longer than it needs to be dragged out. I don't need this stress in my life right now."

Charlie frowns at this, "I'm _so sorry_ that fighting for _our_ marriage is such an inconvenience to you," Charlie says angrily getting up.

"You're fighting for this marriage, because that's what you think you're supposed to do. You stopped fighting for it a long time ago. You're _miserable_ with me and lately that's what I've been with you. When was the last time you slept in our bed? Or we had sex or god forbid we cuddled like normal people. You're annoyed with me all the time and I'm angry at you all the time and I can't do it anymore. So don't come to _my_ office and try and turn this around on me. I didn't do this and I'm not fighting for something that's so broken. So yes you'll pay attention now, you'll try and say the right things, but the thing is you don't get it. To you this is something I'm doing to _us_. It's not about what you did and continue to do. And I can't anymore. I'm sorry I can't." Santana says. "So _please_ just sign the divorce papers."

She doesn't want to but for the first time since she's looked at Santana she sees the misery on Santana's face, the exhaustion and Charlie _hesitates_. "Do you still love me?" she asks her voice low and quiet. It bothers her that Santana isn't wearing her ring, it bothers her that they're even in this position.

She does, she more than does but she can't do it anymore. It's easier to lie, to break her heart now so they can both move on. "We aren't right for each other anymore Charlie and it's time to move on."

"You didn't answer the question," Charlie says quietly.

"The answer is no," Santana says and Charlie's face breaks and she looks away.

She's lying, she can tell that she's lying but it still hurts. "Okay, I'll sign the papers."

Truthfully it's not what she wants—but at the same time it's for the best. Santana looks away, "I need to get my work done Charlie."

"Right, I'll have my lawyers contact your lawyers," Charlie says and runs a hand through her hair. She doesn't know what to say or do anymore, so she just leaves. She doesn't feel good anyway, and it hurts being near her. She doesn't really know what to do except to give Santana what she wants.

Santana waits until she is sure that Charlie is gone, that she's left the building before her stoicism fades and she feels the tears slip down her face. She was tired, she was exhausted and the person she had been in love with since she could remember had just given up.


	6. Chapter 6

Quinn placed her tray beside Santana who was glaring at her twin who was laughing at something that her new girlfriend had said. How Santana had managed to get Charlie a date with Elaine was beyond her, but it seemed to be working out well. "You know," Quinn says causing Santana to blink and look at her flushing. "If you told Charlie how you felt, things might turn out—rather well for you."

"What feelings?" Santana said with an indignant sniff. She glances at Quinn, studying her for a moment before smirking. "Besides I don't see you going out of your way to profess your love for the hobbit."

"I'm not in love with Rachel, I simply think she can do better than Finn Hudson," Quinn said not bothering to look up as she began to nibble on her lunch. "Anyone is better than Finn Hudson. He's an anchor," Quinn said.

Santana rolled her eyes, it was the same argument that Quinn had made for weeks, but she refused to do anything about it. "I'm not in love with your sister, I just think she can do better than Elaine." Quinn rolls her eyes at this. "I'm annoyed because she's _busy_ all the time with Elaine. Like _all_ the time, she barely has time to hang out anymore."

"Yes Charlie being at your beck and call was _incredibly_ healthy," Quinn says and shakes her head. "You do realize that I'm your friend as well, and you can talk to me."

Santana turned to Quinn for a moment, "Puck—"

"Bored already," Quinn said immediately and Santana scowled at this. Quinn rolls her eyes at Santana's scowl. "You know why I don't care? Because you're only dating him because you're too embarrassed to admit that you were an idiot by giving Puck, of all people, your virginity. I suppose you were trying to get rid of it to fit in and I suppose you could have chosen someone else entirely. Charlie comes to mind, she at least wouldn't attempt to sleep with half of the female population of this school."

Santana made a face, "Getting together with your friend generally ruins friendships. It's a _crush_." Santana flicks her eyes to Quinn who raises a brow in amusement. "Not me, I mean Charlie has a crush on me."

"Of course you did. You know Charlie never really glared at Puck like she wanted to murder him. She also didn't stare at the two of you obsessively either. But you're right I don't think you have a crush on my sister." Quinn said.

"Exactly, I just miss the person who actually _listened_ to me when I spoke—instead of cutting me off like a bitch," Santana said crossing her arms over her chest.

"I think you're in love with my sister and you adore all the attention she gives you," Quinn said taking a bite out of her sandwich. She ignores that Santana's jaw dropped and Quinn gives her a look. "It's a shame you're to bloody stubborn and won't tell her about it. But I suppose you're going to tell me that you don't care if she loses her virginity to Elaine of all people."

"No I don't—wait what?" Santana asked turning to Quinn. "They've been dating for _two weeks_."

"What was it you said, something about virginity and they'll follow you forever, shame it didn't work on Puck," Quinn said trying not to smirk, she was having _way_ too much fun with this. "Well in Charlie's case that might actually be the case and then you'll have lost your chance."

Santana turned to look at Charlie and Elaine again squinting at them and frowning when she saw Elaine put her hand on Charlie's lap. She had _not_ thought this through at all. "She can't have _sex_ with Elaine, Charlie's _impressionable_."

Quinn snorts at this, "Sure _impressionable_. Let's go with that." Quinn looks at her twin who is flushing a deep red and she can't see Elaine's hands. "Santana not to rush you but can you go stop my twin from becoming an exhibitionist."

Santana follows Quinn's gaze and sees red, before grabbing her own tray and storming up to Charlie's table and slammed her tray down causing both Charlie and Elaine to jump a bit. "So—what's up?" Santana said with a very tense smile.

Elaine glances at Santana for a moment and then Charlie and places a quick kiss on Charlie's cheek causing her to flush again. "I'll talk to you later, I'll let you talk to your friend."

Charlie nods and watches Elaine go before looking at Santana, "You're angry with me?"

"No _shit_. What were you thinking?" Santana demands.

"I was thinking that my girlfriend is very affectionate and it feels better when someone else is touching me there." Charlie explains and gets swatted by Santana. "What you wanted to know what I was thinking!"

She hadn't wanted to know all that information, "You've been dating her for two weeks and as your friend, I feel the need to warn you that Elaine has a reputation for chewing people up and spitting them out."

Charlie blinks, she was sure that she had the same conversation with Santana prior to the whole Puck debacle. "Are you jealous? Do you want Elaine for yourself?" Charlie asks with a bit of a smile. The smile fades when Santana gives her a look that screams that she is _livid_. "I'm kidding. Thanks for watching out for me but, Elaine isn't going to be my future wife, we're just having fun. Her words not mine and it should be fun so thanks for setting us up."

Santana winced, she _definitely_ hadn't thought this through. "Charlie I—" Hazel eyes find hers and Santana falters. "I don't want you to get hurt and come whining to me when she breaks your heart."

Charlie smiles and reaches over to touch Santana's hand. "You mean like Puck?"

Santana makes a face, exactly like Puck except not at the same time. "I just think you need to think, I mean take it from someone who regrets it. You want your first time to be with someone special. I mean you don't want to give it to someone who will be with someone new next week or just be a notch in their bed post."

Charlie is quiet for a moment before reaching over and patting Santana's hand. "If you feel like that then why haven't you dumped Puck yet?"

"This isn't _about_ me and Puck, it's about you and Elaine. Don't make the same mistakes I did." Santana said. "Just wait until you find the right one and then give it to them."

Charlie is quiet for a moment because it really does feel good when Elaine touches her and she likes Elaine well enough. "Are you saying this because you have feelings for me or you actually believe it?"

Santana pauses for a moment and squirms internally she just wants her friend back and she's going to rethink the whole setting Charlie up thing. "I'm saying it because you're my _friend_."

Charlie face twists at this and she nods, "I'll think about it." She says after a moment after studying Santana. It's odd that after getting her a girlfriend Santana is eager to break them up. But she may hae a point and she doesn't want to be like Puck.


	7. Chapter 7

Santana patted down her clothes, making sure that her baby bump was well hidden. It was mostly so Charlie wouldn't notice, and there was a good chance that Charlie _wouldn't_ put two and two together. It had been a long two months of radio silence from Charlie, all she knew was that Charlie had signed the papers and she wasn't contesting any of her demands. It had saved her a fortune in lawyer fees, and she had managed to convince her parents to let her move into an apartment near her office. This hadn't gone well and her father was still angry at Charlie for not taking responsibility for the pregnancy for not fighting as hard as she could. She had failed to mention that Charlie knew _nothing_ about the pregnancy and it wasn't until her father had gotten to the point where he wanted to 'shake' some sense into Charlie that she had finally intervened.

It was the right decision, she knew in her gut despite how much it hurt that this was the right decision. Charlie didn't seem _miserable_. It had hurt, and it bothered her more than anything that Charlie wasn't there, wasn't coming to her appointments. Wasn't trying to read every baby book known to man and then going around and babyproofing their apartment only to remember that she still had trouble with the childproof mechanism on most medication bottles. A smile flitted across Santana's lips but she shook her head and exhaled.

The radio silence had bothered her, Charlie was stubborn for her to just give in like this was odd. She was worried but calling Quinn to check in on Charlie seemed wrong. Quinn seemed to be staying out of it, above it all. So she had done the only other play she had and started tuning in. Started watching Charlie from afar and it had only caused her more hurt. Charlie _looked good_ , and she sounded even better. But in a way that worried her. She couldn't help it not when the change was so drastic. There was no more playing around and goofing around, and making jokes. She was precise and deadly as she took down Frannie and Quinn much to their annoyance. It would have been almost comical, but what had made Charlie popular is that she had made them look silly with her arguments which had a touch of humor in it. This was calculated it was—Frannie level precise.

Santana exhaled as she entered the court room, she could do this and she looked over at Charlie's side and paused, Quinn was sitting with her legs crossed on one of the seats. Santana looks around Charlie was nowhere to be found and she swallows, "Shouldn't she be here?"

Her lawyer looked at her and looked over at Bryan Ryan who was talking to an associate. "She doesn't _need_ to be here, you've agreed to the terms of the divorce, you didn't ask for much and she isn't fighting you on anything. All of the paperwork has been signed, you don't even really need to be here yourself." He was sure he had mentioned it but Santana had insisted. "If you're having second thoughts, you can stop at any time. I get paid ether way so."

She still had time to back out, she still had time to go home. She still had time to tell Charlie and maybe move on. They could still have a future together but she hesitates and looks over at the empty chair where Charlie should be. "No, we're going through with this." Her lawyer studies her for a moment and nods and takes a seat. Santana exhales and moves to take her seat, she looks over at Quinn who is squinting at her but she chooses to ignore it. Instead she focuses on the proceedings watching as both lawyers talk to the judge who keeps looking at her and then the empty chair. The tone is relatively light though as each second ticks by she begins to question herself. Maybe she was over exaggerating their problems, maybe Charlie wasn't carrying on some secret affair. Maybe it was time to end this stupid experiment, as much as she wanted Charlie to be happy, the caveat was like it had been in the past Charlie was supposed to be happy with her. Her eyes flick forward when her lawyer nudges her and she stands up and says what she was supposed to before sitting back down. The whole process doesn't take more than half an hour, and just like that her marriage is dissolved.

She's supposed to feel something right now, but when the judge announces it, she just feels cold and numb and she doesn't like it. She exhales that's it, and now she needs to have that talk with Charlie—though at this point she wants to put it off, until she couldn't put it off any longer. She still had about six months to inform her of the pregnancy. She turns to her lawyer, "Thank you."

Quinn Fabray had _only_ come to these particular proceedings so she could convince Santana to pick up a phone and talk to Charlie who was making nearly everyone at the office miserable. Truthfully it was a bit selfish of her, but Charlie needed to be Charlie, Frannie needed to be Frannie and she got to watch them go at it and laugh to herself as she played the neutral party. Then there was the fact that Charlie wasn't talking about it, she wasn't even so much as whining about it or coming up with poorly thought out plans. Her sister was broken and she needed Santana to get over herself and fix it. Well that might have been why she was here while Charlie was working herself to death slowly, but something else had caught her attention. "You're _pregnant_."

Santana stiffened and stopped to look at Quinn, "I have no idea—"

"Oh please, Rachel was wearing clothes like that to hide her baby bump, so don't try and lie and squirm your way out of it. You're _pregnant_." Quinn says accusingly. She flicks her eyes to where her sister should be and frowns. "Charlie doesn't know does she?" She pauses for another second and then makes a face. "It is _hers_ right?"

Santana rolls her eyes. "Of course it's hers. You think that we would have gotten a divorce if she _knew_? Charlie and I _haven't_ been good. We aren't good and I wasn't going to raise this child in an environment where we aren't talking to each other. Where she can have sex with me and then decide that she isn't going to stay in the bed afterwards. She was _miserable_ and cheating on me and I couldn't do it anymore. So I left and I'm going to raise this child without all of that. I want her to be raised in a healthy loving environment. And I wasn't going to have this child be the reason where Charlie starts paying attention again. She isn't a tool to be used to bring Charlie in line."

Quinn paused for a second that was the first time she was hearing about an affair. Charlie was _not_ sneaky enough to pull of an affair. She didn't even have time for it, not with all the work she did. She probably should have said something sooner. She wondered if she could pretend not to know anything because she wasn't going to be the messenger who told Charlie. Charlie who was making everyone _miserable_ , it was to the point that Beth would rather spend time with Frannie. Frannie didn't even like children, she thought they were sticky and gross. "Santana. You are going to tell Charlie about the fact that she got you pregnant. You are also going to have a conversation that is long overdue, and you're going to stop being a bitch and simply tell Charlie that you love her and then you two can work out your shit like adults. God you're both idiots." Quinn said throwing her hands in the air. She was so done with this conversation she exhaled.

"You don't understand you think that it's little problems that wrecked this marriage? We've been fighting for two years Quinn, I'm tired. Charlie was phoning it in, and she thought she could do that until I was happy again and I wasn't."

"It's _her_ kid, whatever your issue with Charlie is, this isn't the answer."

"Charlie, isn't ready to have kids, she's not even thinking about it. Every single time I brought it up, it was some excuse. "When the business takes off, after the expansion. She bought a fucking sports car, just because she thought it made her look sexy. Without consulting me. So don't blow it off like every couple fights, we've been fighting for a long time, and we're not on the same page we don't want the same things, and yeah I held this from her. I was going to tell her, after the divorce was finalized because Charlie wouldn't just walk away."

Quinn exhaled slowly, "You know what? Maybe this _was_ the right decision. Get your shit together, I don't even care if you two get back together. But you two have a kid now, which means you're tied to each other for eternity. All this preaching about how you want to be in a happy home and how you're not going to use her as a tool to keep Charlie in line. You're already turning her into a weapon to be used against her. Not telling her is punishing her. _Get. Your. Shit. Together._ " With that she stormed off, if Charlie was having an affair she needed to find something heavy to use to smack upside the head.

* * *

"I think you've been doing an amazing job lately no matter what the viewer's or your sister's think. These are _serious_ issues. You shouldn't be blasé about them. They need to be heard," Dani said as she placed Charlie's lunch in front of her. Charlie nods in response and takes the sandwich as she continues to read an economic impact report. "I'm sorry, about your divorce. It was finalized today wasn't it?"

Charlie misses the hopeful note in Dani's voice and nods, "Yes it was. I'm officially single. Puck is thinking we should celebrate soon. I imagine strippers will happen." Charlie said, she couldn't show up to the stupid thing. What was the point she didn't want to go and have someone tell her that her marriage was over. It wasn't some happy moment for her, she wasn't excited and she didn't want to see Santana all smiles either. She tapped her pen on the table.

"Well I think you'll find your happy ever after," Hazel eyes find hers and Dani smiles. She just needed to wait it out till Charlie finally accepted it.

"My happy ever after is Santana, I'm very much aware that was seriously the best that I'm going to get. Everyone else will be compared to her in every way shape or form. It won't be fair to them or me, so attempting to have any serious long term relationship after the dissolution of this one is slim to none." Charlie said without looking up.

Dani swallowed her disappointment for a moment, it was just a knee jerk reaction. "You'll find someone else—"

"There is a high failure rate for consecutive marriage after that. I figured that Frannie would be the one to you know have the multiple marriages fail. She seems to have the right idea, don't get married." Charlie said cutting her off and stopping and looking at Dani, she sighed. Dani was only trying to make her feel better. "I'm sorry Dani. I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact my marriage is over."

Dani smiled, "I get it, you don't need to apologize—" she places a hand on Charlie's. "Everything will work out for the best." She's about to add something else when Quinn waltzes into Charlie's office and she pulls her hand back.

Quinn flicks her eyes between the two for a moment and narrows her eyes slightly. "I need to talk to Charlie alone," she said dismissing Dani who looked between them before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. Charlie still had the same disinterested look on her face and Quinn immediately put the thought away that it was Dani but she needed to make sure. "Dani? Really? Frannie would have a fit if you opened us up to a sexual harassment lawsuit."

"Dani is being nice, now what do you want?" Charlie asked picking up her sandwich and biting into it as she continues to look over reports.

"Were you having an affair?" Quinn asks bluntly and Charlie actually looks up. She doesn't say anything and Quinn rolls her eyes. "Were. You. Cheating. On. Santana." Quinn says slowly so Charlie can catch up.

"Are you accusing me of being dad now?" Charlie asks testily, "All because my marriage ended doesn't mean that I was out every night trying to sleep with some tattooed freak, who is like thirty years younger than me. In case you didn't realize, someone who is even ten years younger than me is barely legal." Quinn gives her a patient look and Charlie rolls her eyes. "Of course not."

"Charlie this is me, I'm not going to judge you—" Quinn says as she glances around Charlie's office.

"No Quinn. I would never cheat on my wife. God you think I wanted this to happen? You think that I ruined my marriage by fucking around and cheating on her?" Charlie says angrily.

"Of course not, I think you ruined your marriage by being a prick to your wife and being a stubborn asshole." Quinn said, not mentioning that Santana was sure that she was. "In what world is it okay to not sleep in the same bed as your wife? Hell even when Rachel banishes me to the couch for messing with her and putting stuff just out of her reach and laughing along with Beth, I still sleep in my god damn bed with my wife cuddling her, till she gives in."

"How the hell do you—Santana. You talked to Santana. She's been mad at me for _ages_ , and she pulled away every single time I touched her and that seemed to set her off. Insult after bloody insult, so yes I slept on the god damn couch. She didn't want me near her what am I supposed to do? Force myself on her?"

Quinn paused and looked at the ceiling, the two of them needed to have a normal conversation. Why couldn't they have a normal conversation? "Charlie. You're an idiot, you know what makes it worse? Sleeping away from her. Not being near her studies have shown that couples sleeping separately suffer from a whole host of issues. So you suck it up and you deal with it."

"Are you done?" Charlie asks. "If I wanted to listen to someone bitch about my life, I'd go to Frannie and have her come at me. You don't know a thing about what went wrong and you lording it over me that you and Rachel have it figured out pisses me off. Now get the hell out of my office." Charlie snaps at Quinn.

"I am _helping you_. Talk to your god damn wife."

"Ex-wife. She's my ex-wife and if Santana wants to talk to me she can call, or you know show up at my office and drop some gigantic life-changing news on my lap." Charlie snipped and picked up her report again.

Quinn looks up at the ceiling praying for patience to not beat Charlie upside the head. Though a little part of her was amused at this very idea. "Fine."

"Fine. Now get the hell out of my office." Charlie snapped at Quinn who rolled her eyes and walked out. Charlie waited until her door was closed before she threw the report down on the table and opened her desk drawer where there was a picture of her and Santana together. She stared at it for a moment before placing it back in her drawer and picking up the report again.

* * *

The apartment elevator dinged and Charlie stepped off and onto her floor and headed to get a change of clothes for the next day. She didn't like staying in the apartment alone. She was thinking of just selling it and moving into a smaller space. She jingled her keys and moved to her apartment stopping when she saw Santana sitting in front of their door. Charlie's heart flips, a part of her hoping that the fighting was over and they could work on getting back together.

Santana pushes herself to a standing position and holds up her own set of keys and tosses them to Charlie. "I came to return them," she says as she pulls on her shirt, still trying to hide the baby bump.

Charlie catches her keys for a moment and she quickly hardens immediately. "You could have just given them to Quinn when she saw you earlier and you proceeded to tell her what a shitty wife I was to you." Charlie snips at Santana who rolls her eyes.

"I'm not here to fight with you—"

"Or fight for us apparently, you gave me the keys. I gave you what you wanted now I need you to leave Santana," Charlie says in a testy tone.

There's no time like the present and if she doesn't tell Charlie now, she's never going to tell her. " _I'm pregnant_ ," she says bluntly and watches as a gamut of emotions runs across Charlie's face. It ends on hurt and betrayal. Charlie looks like she's about to explode on her and Santana takes another breath. "It's _yours_."

Charlie flicks her eyes to Santana's abdomen for a moment and then back at Santana. "Impossible, we haven't had sex in _ages_." Santana gives her a dull look. Charlie pauses and counts back it would be closing in on fourteen maybe fifteen weeks since they last had sex and her body goes rigid. There is absolutely no way that Santana couldn't have known for all this time. Any happiness was immediately put aside to anger. Anger and hurt. She doesn't even know what to say and Santana is rubbing her arm staring at her waiting for her to say something. "What the _hell_ did I ever do to you?" Charlie demands after a long moment. Because she can't think of a legitimate reason, or why Santana would ever deny her the right to raise a child. No wonder Quinn was on her case earlier. She had probably found out, it had to be the only reason Santana was here now.


	8. Chapter 8

"I think I have a crush on Lauren Zizes." Puck said. The random statement had Quinn looking over at him like he had lost his mind. Charlie who had been eating a chip choked and he reached over and smacked her back hard three times until she gasped for air. "Shit dude _relax_."

Quinn looked at Charlie and pushed a bottle of water her way before exhaling and turning to him, "Aren't you dating Santana?"

Puck shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, "We're off and on. Right now I'm pretty sure that we're off." At least he was fifty percent sure they were off. It was hard to tell with Santana, she got crazy jealous at times when he was pretty sure that they were off. It was hard to tell and it cramped his style. Most girls were afraid of her, something about all the yelling.

Charlie stared at Puck, it was nearly Valentine's Day. "Do you have a death wish? I'm pretty sure that Lauren can kill you without blinking an eye. Santana can kill you too, except I'm unsure which one will be the quicker death." Charlie frowned ever so slightly and made a face. "Is this your new fetish dating girls that can murder you? Do you get off on that sort of thing now?"

Puck grinned, "Lauren's pretty cool and she's pretty low maintenance. I don't see what the big deal is. Santana broke up with me," Plus he was a hundred percent sure that Santana was in love with Charlie. Once Quinn had pointed it out, he had seen it.

"Santana, wants you to stop being a man whore," Charlie snips at him. "I don't see why you need to go around and act like a complete moron and try and sleep with everything and everyone in sight when you have Santana around," Charlie sniffs.

"Because I'm a sexy Jew?" Puck flashes her a smile and pats her back, and once Quinn pointed it out he had realized that Charlie despite the fact that he was sure she was sleeping with Elaine, was in love with Santana. "Because Santana doesn't put out anymore and I have needs?" He was slugged hard in the arm by Charlie who gave him an almost lethal look. He winced and rubbed his arm, there would be a bruise later he could tell.

Quinn sighed and smacked Puck upside the head hard causing him to wince at her. "Puck, Santana is my friend even if I think she's a bit of a bitch—and you know how she gets." It was one thing if Puck was sleeping around with another cheerleader. It was something else entirely if it was someone who was close to the bottom of the food chain.

"I—" Puck begins only to have Charlie put her hand over his mouth.

"You don't get to talk anymore, because you're an asshole. You're going to get Santana something for Valentine's Day and stop being an asshole for like five seconds because it's Santana. I don't want her being upset."

"Because you're in love with her?" Puck asks when Charlie finally pulls her hand back.

"No because if she's upset we're going to hear about it in _grave_ detail." Quinn said answering for Charlie who crinkled her nose at it.

"I got Elaine a necklace, I had to shovel like five driveways, and I'm using my Christmas money to afford it but I think she'll like it," Charlie said with a smile. "So get her something _nice_ , and then after Valentine's Day you can go off and get crushed by Zizes."

Puck rolled his eyes, he wasn't getting a girl that wasn't his girlfriend, at least he was sure wasn't his girlfriend a present.

* * *

Santana _was not_ having a good day. It was hard to not be jealous of everyone else's happiness. Girl's getting presents. Hell even Quinn was being showered in gifts and cards and stuff from secret admirers. Charlie hadn't dumped Elaine, the fact that the relationship had lasted months was grating. At least the huge amounts of PDA had stopped. She was sure that Charlie was in love with her now, it was four months and they still didn't spend nearly as much time together as they used to. She missed her, especially since she was forced to hang out with Quinn.

So perhaps getting into a fight over Noah Puckerman was not her best idea. But something in her had snapped, she felt insecure. It was _Lauren Zizes_ for fuck's sake. Sure getting into a fight with the only girl on the wrestling team was a shitty idea but _still_. She groaned, everything hurt and she had been in some brutal cheerleading practices. "Fucking hell." It was _embarrassing_ and she felt like a bigger fool than ever she was done with Puck. She was so done with his bullshit. The curtain was pulled back and she flushed when she saw the twin's standing there. Santana immediately looked away, Quinn had an amused smiled on her face and Charlie had one of concern.

"Really you had to go and fight Zizes for Puck," Quinn said, this whole thing was getting ridiculous. Santana didn't even _like_ Puck why she felt she had to do something as stupid as that was beyond her.

Santana gritted her teeth but sighed, "I got jealous that everyone else was getting shit. It's Valentine's Day—hell you got shit and you're a bigger bitch than I am," it was a moment of rare honesty. "I mean and then I saw Puck with Zizes of all people, and it was like—I don't know I felt—like I wasn't good enough. Or pretty enough."

"Puck has a fetish for dangerous women," Charlie says as she puts her bag down on the ground. "This much is obvious and he's into the whole women should have curves. Plus I'm pretty sure that Zizes is using Puck for his popularity, which seems to be a common theme for him."

Santana rolled her eyes, she was popular without him. That wasn't the case but with all her popularity she would think that someone—anyone would like her like that. "Well I'm done with Fuckerman," she says with a sigh.

Quinn shoots Charlie a look, she'd believe that when she saw it. But she frowned when she noticed Charlie pulling out the rectangular box she had worked so hard to afford for Elaine out of the front pocket. Charlie had planned to give to Elaine at dinner and she raised an eyebrow but decided to watch the events unfold.

Charlie pulled out the box and placed it on Santana's lap. "I was going to break into your locker earlier, but I don't know your locker combination, and I'm not a criminal like Puck. But happy Valentine's Day."

Santana paused and looked at the box opening it, it was a silver heart shaped necklace. "You bought this for me?" she asked looking at Charlie who nodded. She doesn't believe it for a second, "What about Elaine?"

"I'm taking her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, the necklace was that expensive Santana and I thought if Puck was going to be a complete ass to you on Valentine's Day you—then you should know that someone cared about you. Quinn helped." Charlie elbowed Quinn.

Quinn smiled at this immediately. They were terrible at this and Charlie was pulling everything out of her ass as she spoke. "We do care about you." Quinn said.

Santana flicked her eyes between the two of them studying them for a second and touching the necklace. She was surprised by their kindness and she didn't quite believe that Quinn had anything to do with it. Charlie was smiling though at her and she relaxed a bit. "Thank you," she says quietly as she allows Charlie to move to fasten it around her neck.

The bell rings signifying the end of lunch and Charlie gives her hand a squeeze, "Feel better, and stay away from Zizes," Charlie informs her with a bit of a laugh. Santana makes a face at this but nods and Charlie walks out with Quinn.

Quinn waits until they're clear of the nurse's office and smacks Charlie upside the head. "You're an idiot, you spent like seventy dollars on that." Quinn sighed, Charlie had busted her ass to afford it. "What are you going to give Elaine?"

"I have art next, I'll make her something cute and adorable. But I wasn't going to let Puck make Santana feel inadequate." Charlie said rubbing the back of her head. She'd ask Puck if he had some condoms on him. Maybe she could distract Elaine with sex, it was about time she got rid of her v-card.

Quinn was quiet for a moment and scrunches up her face, "You really have it bad for her don't you?"

Charlie shrugs and smiles, "Santana is Santana. I mean she's beautiful and smart—and she shouldn't have to deal with Puck's womanizing ways. So maybe she needs a bit of help remembering that she's beautiful and smart and she doesn't need Puck. It's Valentine's Day. It's no big deal Quinn."

Quinn was about to say that she didn't answer the question but she rolls her eyes instead. Charlie had it very bad.


	9. Chapter 9

Santana set her jaw immediately, "What do you mean, 'What the hell did you to do me?" Santana questioned angrily, yet her voice was cold. She wasn't going to let Charlie be a martyr, let alone shift all the blame for this onto her.

Charlie had heard the tone before and usually it generally made her stop and reassess the situation but she wasn't having it this time. "There are two possibilities to this, you're lying. You had an affair and you're trying to pass this child off as mine. The alternative is, that it's mine and you found out and hid the information from me so you could have an easy divorce and raise this child without me."

Santana's temper flares at Charlie's words at the implication that Charlie thought that she was really fucking around on her. She wasn't the one having an affair after all but she decides to start with the less egregious of Charlie's two alternatives. "It's _your child_. I did do this so you'd actually go through with the divorce because I knew if you knew then you'd never just move on with your fucking life."

"Of course I wouldn't, it's my child and you were my _wife_ and I loved you more than anything even if these days you were a pain in my ass. You telling me that you're pregnant was supposed to be right up there with marrying you, and quite possibly the birth of our first kid." Charlie inhales sharply, it's ruined this was supposed to be a _happy_ moment but now it's spoiled. Was she going to have to fight to see her kid, pay child support, was Santana going to punish her by not letting her be a part of her life? "How could you keep this from me? And how do I know it's mine when you were out cheating on me with this Isabela person." Charlie's nose crinkles at this idea. "You always did like freaks," she throws in spitefully her anger reaching its apex. A sharp crack fills Charlie's ears and it takes her a second before she registers the pain in her face, and she stumbles back.

Santana freezes, it had just come out of nowhere and she also takes a step back. It had gotten toxic, the two of them had gotten to this point. She can still feel the tingle in her hand, and sure she had swatted Charlie upside the head playfully before but she'd never slapped her. "I'm sorry." She says immediately, she's rewarded with an angry look from Charlie who immediately straightens up.

"We're done," Charlie says eerily calm. Santana opens her mouth to protest but Charlie moves brushing past her to go to her apartment. "I gave you what you wanted Santana. You wanted to divorce, you got your stupid divorce. If the kid is mine, I'm going to be seeking full custody." Charlie says as she fishes for her keys to

It's a flash of fear but Santana steels herself, if Charlie wants a fight she will damn well give her one. "If? Isabela was the name that I decided to give my daughter, because I know you far too well and you'd want to name her something _stupid_ like Charlie Junior. I never cheated on you, but you can't say the same fucking thing can you?" Santana watches as Charlie turns to her.

"Do you honestly think that I broke our wedding vows? That _I cheated on you_?" Charlie snaps at Santana. The night of their wedding before she could get naked Santana had placed her dick in a very firm grip and given it a bit of a squeeze, and informed her that it was hers. She had been terrified and turned on at the same time. Santana looks away. "So your solution is to cheat on me?"

"I didn't _fucking cheat on you_ , don't you dare pretend that for months you weren't coming home late. That you didn't come home smelling like another woman. Her perfume _clings_ to you. It's on all your clothes and you don't notice it. You don't notice and then you go buy yourself a sports car like you're in some sort of midlife crises. You're twenty-nine Charlie. Who the hell are you trying to impress? Because it wasn't me. You cared more about that, about impressing her than you did about building a family with me. You don't even really want a child, you don't want that responsibility and you keep pushing it off." Santana exhales slowly, before her anger spikes again. "You _don't_ get to threaten me that you're going to take _my_ _child_ away from me. Who the _hell_ do you think you are?"

Charlie stops and turns quickly entering Santana's space. Santana takes a step back immediately. "The person who _loved you_. I loved _you_ more than anything else in the world. And you left. You made that decision to leave. I didn't cheat on you. I didn't leave you, I didn't check out I was waiting until whatever crawled up your ass to crawl back out Santana. You yelled at me for everything. You got mad every time I touched you. You _left_ , if anyone had a reason to leave it was me, but I made a vow to stick beside you for the good and the bad and it was bad. I know it was bad but I thought we'd get over it." Charlie pulls back after a second and relaxes her hand she wants to shake Santana but she can't. "You ruined _us_ , you broke it and you broke me. So you're right I'm going to fight for my child. The child you didn't even tell me about. I should be happy, I should be fucking happy and guess what? You ruined that to."

"You were cheating on me. I could smell her on you, I saw how you talked about Dani like she was the best thing in the world. And I wasn't going to sit around and wait for you to want to move on to the next model. Someone younger and prettier than me." Santana exhaled slowly and then took few steps back. The conversation was going in circles, it wasn't even a conversation anymore. "You are not taking my child Charlie and all this proves to me is that I made the right decision. I didn't want to use her as a weapon, I wanted to have a clean break, and I wanted to raise her in a healthy loving environment. This is why I didn't tell you because you wouldn't let me leave. You'd insist that we could fix it, that you'd do better, that everything would be okay. When it isn't. We aren't going to be okay, and this was the best decision. There isn't anything left to fix."

Charlie stares at Santana for a long moment, "You didn't even give us a chance to succeed, and the moment you had an excuse to leave. You did. I should have expected this and maybe you can find someone that can make you happy. So good luck with that. I'll have the lawyers draw up some custody agreement papers." Charlie turns feeling burnt out and opens the door to their old apartment, there is nothing keeping her here anymore. She was definitely going to sell it, even if it was for a loss.

Santana nods at the statement before turning herself, there was nothing left to say or do, they were so devastatingly broken. But maybe when the emotions of hurt finally died away they could get on the same page they had a little over five months before their child was born.

* * *

Charlie took the offered beer from Noah Puckerman, crashing at his small place was a terrible idea but she needed some air. She needed to not feel anything anymore. She took a long sip, ignoring his worried looks. Honestly she had wanted to go after Quinn for not giving her the heads up for not warning her. But murdering Quinn in front of her daughter felt wrong. She was angry and hurt and she just wanted all this pain and misery to go away. "You know how you said that the quickest way to get over someone is to get under someone else?"

Puck sipped his beer studying Charlie, he had said a lot of things. Most of them had ended up with him getting smacked upside the head. He hadn't really been serious, he had really just been needling her to get her to smile and relax. "You're not me. I can sleep with a new woman every night and not care. You on the other hand are going too probably I don't know _cry_ on them and that's just going to ruin the mood. I mean you just got divorced. The inks not even dry yet and that's not you. A year from now, you tell me you're ready to get back on the horse, then I'll open the little black book just for you. So long as you promise not to have them fall in love with you."

Charlie snorts at this. "It was just Santana. It was _always_ Santana. She was so—I don't know amazing and the cheerleading outfit," she laughs at this. God the nights that she had spent fantasizing about that. The smile fades after a moment as she feels the helplessness welling up inside of her. "I just—I need to get over her Puck."

"Answer is still no," Puck said firmly. "You can still win Santana back and then you're going to feel guilty and you're going to blame it on me and honestly Santana fucking scares me."

"That turns you on remember?" Charlie said laughing. It doesn't last that long and it sort of turns into a half sob, she stops immediately trying to reign it in. "I'm just like him."

Puck takes another swig of his beer and looks at her, "Your old man is a jackass of epic proportions. Just like mine was. Difference is, your dad is a rich jackass and still pays your mom alimony. Mine's just a bum who just borrowed five hundred dollars for me. You aren't anything like him. You didn't just abandon your kid—you don't even have kids Charlie."

"Santana's pregnant," Charlie says after a moment. Puck drops his beer, sending the rest of its contents spilling all over the floor. "I think it's mine. But I haven't slept with her in months. Which means, she's known for months and she didn't tell me. She didn't fucking tell me. I missed two months—I missed two months and I don't know how many more I'm going to miss. First words, first steps. First day of school. I'm supposed to—I want to be there for all of it. First sonogram. Everything and she—robbed me of that. I can't believe that she just took away my say. She just—she didn't even try and make it work. She didn't talk to me she just left." Charlie looks at Puck. "I'm furious at her. I'm furious but I just want my family back but after this—there is no coming back from this. I'm never going to trust her again. We're far too broken and a year from now—I'm going to have to see her. I'm going to have to deal with her and my kid and her and it's the life I wanted."

"Fuck." Puck said looking at Charlie. Maybe she did need a good lay and a way to take her mind of things. "You need to—do something Charlie. You need to fight for your family—do what our damn father's never did."

Charlie holds her hand out for another beer. "I'm not fighting for something broken Puck. The best I can do is be there for my daughter, whenever she needs me. It's not going to be perfect but it'll be the best I can do. I'm going to love the crap out of her, I love her already, she's not even here and I love her already. I want to be a good parent to her. I should get some parenting books read the crap out of them. Plus I'm thinking of selling the apartment. Getting something more kid friendly. Maybe next to the park or something, and I need to buy a safe family car." Charlie said she needed to focus on her kid. It certainly beat focusing on Santana right now, but she wasn't going to be her dad. She was going to take an active interest in her child's life. Maybe it would take the pain away.

Puck studies Charlie for a moment, "Am I at least going to be the godfather?" He grins when Charlie looks at him and snorts for a moment before bursting out into laughter. He has no idea what's so funny, he'd make a great godfather.

* * *

Of all the times when she wished she could drink this wasn't the time and she swallowed her frustrations. She hadn't thought it would spiral out of control like that—she had hit her wife—her ex-wife. Yeah sure she slapped Quinn every now and again, but Quinn gave as good as she got. But Charlie's had jabbed her hard. It bothered her more than she would ever admit to hear Charlie question whether she had been faithful. To question their child. She knew that Charlie wouldn't be happy, but this—the anger the rage she hadn't predicted that. Charlie hadn't been cheating—not physically at least. But her mother had always said that cheating didn't usually start with two people hopping into bed with each other. It started before that, it was emotional.

Santana sighed—but she could have stopped it, all she had needed to do was talk to Charlie. All she had needed to do was put away the suspicion and just talk to Charlie. But she had been cheated on, and she knew the signs, and maybe she had shut down too soon. She should have put a bit more faith in Charlie—and now they were broken. Charlie would never ever forgive her. There was nothing holding them together anymore and the very notion that Charlie would react—and want to take her child away scared her. She may have eventually calmed down and thought about it—but there was always that fear. Charlie and Quinn had been old enough to tell the judge they wanted to stay with their mother. But her daughter wasn't going to have that, all she would know all she would ever know was that they weren't together. And then what would happen if Charlie decided to remarry. If she chose to start another family, she wasn't even sure how she could handle it.

But it was far too late for that, Charlie had threatened to take her child away. She had slapped her ex-wife, there was no coming back from things like that, there was no fixing that and they needed to get to a place where they could at least be civil to each other. Santana folded her laundry slowly. Picking up the hoodie that she had stolen from Charlie's side and she runs her hand along the soft fabric. It—didn't smell like her anymore she couldn't pretend any more that it was Charlie who was wrapping her arms around her.

Santana blinked back tears feeling the warmness of a few tears slide down her cheek. For the past two, she had pushed herself deeper into her work, she hadn't stopped to think about it. It was like she had been on adrenaline and the high and the emotions and the anger were all coming to a standstill. Maybe it was the hormones maybe it was something else entirely the thought finally hits her. She was pregnant and alone. She was going to do this alone. Every doctor's appointment every little thing buying all the baby clothes and the supplies. This wasn't what she had envisioned when she thought about having kids. Not with Charlie, she had always thought Charlie would be more excited than anything—like a kid at Christmas that just found out that they had gotten the bike they had begged for. They would argue over what color to paint the baby room. She'd laugh while Charlie attempted to put the crib together, that's what she had envisioned. She wouldn't have complained about the 'morning sickness' or the weird cravings. That was what she had wanted—but she was alone.

She can't exactly remember when she picked up her phone or how she had dialed Charlie's number but she's there and she's waiting, and she just plans to hear Charlie's voice, but it rings once and it immediately goes to voicemail. She hears Charlie's voice and it's gone in just a second and there's a beep, loud and annoying and Santana stares at the phone for a second before ending the call. Santana swallows and exhales and she needs to keep it together. She wanted this divorce, it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since it was finalized but it finally hits her and even though she managed to keep the tears at bay for two full months she cracks. It's slow at first, silent tears and then finally she hiccups and it just starts to come down and she sobs. The stupid pregnancy hormones.


	10. Chapter 10

Santana knocked on the door to Charlie's room, she'd gotten a call form Quinn suggesting that Charlie might need her. Truthfully the whole Fabray house was relatively somber even though Judy seemed to be weirdly chipper. She waited for a moment before rolling her eyes and opening the door. She had never been one for patience's and she saw Charlie sitting on her bed with that expression on her face that probably meant that she was listening to some god awful music. Probably the whiney kind that wanted to talk about problems all the time. Charlie didn't get up she barely acknowledged her presence and Santana rolled her eyes and smacked her leg to get her to move. Charlie just gave her a dull look and Santana sighed and reached over and pulled off her headphones.

" _Hey!"_ Charlie said trying to grab her mp3 player from Santana who held it out of her reach.

Santana scanned what was playing and it was way worse than she had imagined. "Are you listening to Hawthorne Heights? What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" Charlie tries to reach for her precious music and Santana realizes how dark it is in Charlie's room despite it being a relatively bright outside and she smacks Charlie's hand away. "Stop, what's going on?"

Charlie paused for a moment and studied Santana, "Quinn didn't tell you?" Charlie asked surprised. She thought the reason why Santana was currently here was to see Quinn and to bother her. "Our parents are getting divorced." It was a very matter of fact statement.

Santana frowned slightly, she had never really met Charlie's father, he wasn't exactly absent but it was very obvious that he was just there. Charlie and Quinn were indifferent to his existence for the most part. "I'm sorry Charlie—"

"Oh I'm not upset that my parents are divorcing my dad is a fucking asshole who's been having an affair for what seems like years," Charlie said with a shrug. "It needed to happen, what I'm upset about is that for the first time since we were like five, he's finally pretending to like us." Charlie nods to the brand new camera that's sitting on her desk still in it's box.

Santana frowned slightly, sure she might have tuned Charlie out when she went on about different camera's and lenses but she did understand that Nikon's were a bit on the expensive side. "I don't understand how your father getting you the camera you've been saving up for is a bad thing. It's an apology right I mean a shitty apology, like he's trying to buy your love but still an apology. I mean at least he's acknowledging you right?"

Charlie frowned, she and Quinn were not Frannie. Their father didn't shower them with gifts just for anything. "It's not the camera I wanted. It's the Nikon D4 it's close to four thousand dollars. I know it's a 'better' camera but—I'm giving it back."

Santana placed, the mp3 player on Charlie's desk and moved to the window and opened the blinds, ignoring Charlie hissing and trying to bury herself into her pillows. She turned back to Charlie and tried not to smile she was being silly, but being stuck in a depressed mood wasn't _helping_ her. "Because he's trying to buy your love or because it has strings that you don't want to deal with."

Charlie sighed as she sat up and ran a hand through her hair. "The latter. He wants us to leave with him. He wants to be a family now. The judge is going to ask both me and Quinn where we want to stay. I think he just wants to get out of paying child support—or whatever. He's making it seem like he _wanted_ us to go to a private school, and he wanted us to be more involved but it was our mom that is running our lives. If I take it—if we take the gifts that he's giving us we're going to have to go with him and we'll have to leave every one of you behind."

"Your mom asked for a divorce didn't she?" Charlie nods and Santana winces because that's what it sounds like. Like Russell Fabray is _punishing_ his wife for daring to stand against him and he's using his power and influence to buy his children and get his way.

"It's a good school, one of the best in the city and we can finish up high-school there. Three quarters of the graduating class goes to an Ivy League. Frannie says it's a good opportunity and she should know—I think Quinn wants to go." Though she was certain it was because she and Rachel were fighting at the moment. Something about how Finn was an idiot. "And if Quinn goes—" Charlie said biting her lip.

Santana doesn't need Charlie to finish that sentence. She'd maybe miss Quinn a tiny bit, but Charlie—she'd miss Charlie. "You two aren't joined at the hip Charlie, if Quinn goes doesn't mean that you have to." Santana holds her hand up, "I know you two are twins and it's different. But you can't be codependent and you shouldn't do something that Quinn wants to do because it makes you miserable. You have friends here—and a _girlfriend_ ," Santana's lips twist at this and Charlie looks at her and she manages to straighten her face.

Charlie wraps her arms around herself, "Yeah but Quinn and I haven't been apart not really for more than a few days. I won't ever get to see her for the rest of high school and maybe later. I don't want to leave my mom—but I don't want to leave Quinn either."

Santana bites her lip and makes a mental note to fuck with Quinn to the point where she stays. If it meant breaking Finn so he left the hobbit alone then so be it. "Charlie you and Quinn are going to have two separate lives someday. She's going to have a family and you're going to have a family and you're going to be happy without her."

"Yeah but that was always in the future Santana—"

"Look what I'm trying to say is that I don't want you to go," Santana says and Charlie whips her head to her. "We're friends Charlie—and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you—and Quinn. I'd probably murder someone and end up in juvie. It'd be both your fault for leaving me to fend for myself." Santana says looking away when she notices something flashes across Charlie's eyes.

Charlie is quiet for a moment and rubs her arm before picking at scab on her knee. "Just friends?" Charlie asks quietly.

Santana hesitates, there was something between them it was getting harder and harder to deny it but Charlie had a girlfriend. One that she was sleeping with, and did like her surprisingly. "Charlie—I need you here. Why can't we just leave it at that? You have a girlfriend remember."

It takes Charlie a moment but she nods, "I just—I know I have you, Puck—and Elaine. But—"

"Charlie, you don't like your dad. Quinn doesn't like your dad. Hell your mom doesn't even really like your dad. The only person who likes your dad is Frannie and if you go with him then what? Once he has you, things won't change. He'll go back to ignoring you and pretending that you don't exist. And you know he's doing it to screw with your mom. You know your mom, who you love a lot." Santana reminds Charlie. "She'll be sad and you'll feel guilty." Charlie snorts at this and Santana smiles. "If you leave I'll be mad at you Charlie—and I'll miss you." Santana says as she sits on Charlie's bed beside her.

"You'll miss copying my history homework because you didn't want to do it," Charlie grumbles and she's met with an amused smile from Santana.

"That too. But I'd also miss you butchering the Spanish language with your terrible accent, and attempting to copy my homework in the morning." Santana says and laughs as Charlie crinkles her nose. They're quiet for a moment and Santana exhales. "If you really want me to, I can totally kick Quinn's ass and make her stay. I mean I could do without the bitchiness half the time but—you know Quinn would totally miss me."

Charlie looks over at Santana for a moment, "You'd kick Quinn's ass for me?"

Santana nods, "I can even teach you how to kick Quinn's ass," Charlie makes a face at this and Santana rolls her eyes. "Look all you really need to do is take her down and then while she's on the ground—" Santana says moving and quickly pinning Charlie to the bed. Santana smirks from where she's sitting on top of Charlie and then begins to tickle her. Causing Charlie to writhe underneath her and laugh while trying to buck her off. "No more listening to any sad depressing music." Santana says in a bossy tone.

Charlie stops laughing when Santana stops and relaxes, resting her hands on Santana's hips. There is a little itch in the back of her mind that says that she needs to stop it, to pull back, that she has a girlfriend but at this point she doesn't care because Santana is well Santana and she's wanted this since the first day she met Santana, and Santana is looking at her with that look and she can't help herself leaning in and kissing Santana once again. It's soft and feels nice and Santana returns the kiss this time, there is no hesitation on her part.

It lasts for a moment a long moment a good moment before Santana catches herself and pulls back, smacking Charlie's arm. "You have a girlfriend Charlie, and I've been cheated on. This isn't right." Charlie blinks at this and nods, she'd just break up with Elaine. "Look, date Elaine she likes you and I don't want to be the 'homewrecker' so—just be happy with her."

"But—" Charlie begins, this is good they like each other the kiss was good.

"Charlie," Santana says making a face with all the shit that Puck had pulled in the past. She wasn't going to facilitate it, and she was certainly wasn't going to reward Charlie by cheating. "The answer is no." Santana repeats and moves to pull herself off Charlie. She feels Charlie tighten her grip for a moment and Santana stops and looks at her. "Charlie."

"Santana I—" Charlie begins.

"Charlie, I was thinking that maybe the best thing to do is—" Quinn says as she walks into Charlie's room without knocking and stops. Watching as Santana and Charlie pull away from each other. It seemed like she had interrupted something but they weren't looking at each other and both of them seemed embarrassed. "Am I interrupting something?"

Santana hears the mocking note in Quinn's voice and glances over at Charlie for a second before flushing and shaking her head. "No—I was just showing Charlie how to kick your ass."

Quinn flicked her eyes to Charlie for a moment who refused to meet her eyes, like she believed that. "Right—well I was thinking about it and I realized that I'd probably hate being around dad more than having to watch Rachel kiss Finn." Quinn said as she moved to take a seat on Charlie's bed.


	11. Chapter 11

It seemed like it had happened overnight, the ballooning out. She had gained so much weight in such a relative time period and it had been impossible to keep it quiet from her co-workers who were telling her to take it easy. There was a small nagging part of her that worried that somehow that she was carrying twins, the alternative was that she was carrying one super fat baby. She looked around the waiting room and glanced at her watch again. She had tried to call Charlie—tried to but it always went straight to voicemail. She had thought that the past month would lead to some—cooling off period, so they could start moving forward but still nothing. She had texted her the time of her next ultrasound, hoping that it would bridge the gap between two of them and they could figure something out. A plan or something that would help them figure it out.

Santana casually glanced around the waiting room of the office, there were quite a few people who had their partner, or someone with them. Maybe she should have sent a message to her abuela, or her mother or maybe even Rachel to tag along but she was hoping that Charlie would show up. She couldn't just expect everyone else to help her and Charlie had said that she wanted to be a part of their child's life. It wasn't just—when the baby was here she'd take an active interest. She would need to trust Charlie with their child, that she knew what to do that she had a handle on it. She exhales a bit and just waits for her name to be called, there is nothing she can do about it now and she can't have any regrets.

"Sorry I'm late," Charlie says taking a seat beside Santana whose head whipped towards her. "I got lost," she says with a shrug. It was a lie, she had spent the last ten minutes trying to get it together. To make sure that she wasn't angry. Whatever she may feel towards Santana, the hurt the anger—Santana was _still_ and always would be the mother of her child.

Santana studies Charlie who isn't really looking at her, and she wants to say something to reach over and touch Charlie's hand something, but there's still something. "I didn't think you were going to come—" she admits, she needs to try something new anything new.

Charlie's annoyance flares. "It's my kid of course I was going to come."

Santana jaw sets at Charlie's anger, she was just going to thank her, and there was no need for Charlie to get so defensive. "Doesn't matter if we divorced, it's _our_ children. We did this together."

Charlie looks at Santana for a moment and then snorts, "Speak for yourself, I did most of the work." It's petty and she knows it is, but she can't help it.

"You did most of the work?" Santana says testily. She was currently carrying their child, possibly children. Daring Charlie to repeat herself but Charlie doesn't and just gives her a look. Santana waits, but Charlie doesn't bite. It's the first time that Santana's spent any time looking at Charlie and not being angry, not completely and Charlie looks—well Charlie looks extremely good. Just like she had been lately, completely put together. She is quiet for a moment and bites her lip, someone needs to bridge the gap between them. "You look good," Charlie looks at her and she suddenly feels very self-conscious. She's gained a tremendous amount of weight and she had needed to spend a bit more money on maternity clothes, because of her ever expanding waistline. "I've been watching your show lately. And you look good—but I miss the old you. You were funnier."

Charlie shrugged, "They're serious issues and they deserve to be taken as such." Charlie said tapping her fingers on the arm rest of the chair. She was quiet, Dani insisted that she was doing a good thing keeping things professional and she did like the fact that she was beating Frannie at her own game. She flicks her eyes to Santana for a moment. "Since when do you watch the show?"

Santana didn't say anything right away, she had always caught the show whenever she had time. But she missed Charlie and it seemed to be the only place that she could hear her voice. "There are some concerns, so I'm basically doing desk duty until I take my maternity leave. I've finished most of my paperwork, which is a good thing, so it leaves me to catch some of your show." Charlie nods at this and turns her head away. Santana sighs, the conversation is stilted and its obvious Charlie doesn't want to really talk. She should have expected this. She needs to try again. "Charlie—"

"Santana Fabray-Lopez?" A nurse says coming to the area and looking around before resting her eyes on Santana who turns when she hears her name.

Santana looks at Charlie for a minute who had gotten up and extended a hand. It's like old times but Charlie isn't looking at her and she's sure it's just—an old habit. Santana takes the offered hand and manages to stand up. Instead of letting Charlie pull away she gently squeezes her hand and looks at her but once again Charlie refuses to look at her and tugs on her hand. Santana lets the hand fall away and she gives up on it. They weren't—it wasn't working and how were they going to raise a child if Charlie couldn't even look at her.

* * *

"Everything looks absolutely normal. Would you like to have a picture or a video?" Dr. Chin asked the two of them, she had noticed the little things. Usually most couples that came in here were—very touching and loving with each other. They were usually filled to the brim with excitement. She hadn't personally seen a couple with this much distance between them, let alone all the tension.

"Can I have a video—and a picture?" Charlie asks, it was so weird to think of another life growing inside Santana. Like it blew her mind, sure Rachel had been pregnant and she knew pregnant ladies but—still. There was a life that she had helped create growing inside Santana. She reaches for a moment to touch Santana's still exposed stomach but stops herself after a moment and looks away when Santana turns to her.

"Can we have two separate ones?" Santana asks after looking back at the doctor.

Dr. Chin nods and Charlie exhales and rubs her arm a bit, "And you're sure the baby is like five months?" Charlie asks. She ignores the wounded look Santana shoots her.

"It appear so, it'll be impossible to tell exactly when conception was, most couples like to guess though, it's a fun exercise and it helps build intimacy," Dr. Chin informed them as she wiped Santana's stomach clean.

"We're divorced," Charlie informs Dr. Chin who winces, she doesn't look at Santana when she says this. She needed to know if the child was hers. She wanted the child to be hers so badly.

Dr. Chin doesn't say anything to that, but she pulls off her gloves. "Just give me a moment and I'll go get your ultrasounds, you can get dressed Santana."

Santana nods and gets helped up and she pulls off the gown the moment Dr. Chin leaves. She looks over at Charlie who immediately turns around to give her some privacy. A part of her knows, in her head it's to do that, but there's another part of her that feels hideous. She's fat, and she's got stretch marks. Her breasts are bigger and they ache. Pregnancy was rough, no one had told her that her libido was going to be increased tenfold. "You've seen me naked before."

Charlie doesn't say anything for a moment, it was permission to look or at least she thought it was. She still didn't sneak a peek, she wasn't a teenager anymore and the whole thing was exhausting. "Yeah when we were together. When I thought that we loved each other. I don't want to be—we're not going to be that divorced couple that has sex all the time. So I don't care if you're dating or start to date—I mean I do care, but that's because the kid comes first now. But I personally don't care if you're dating anyone." She says it with conviction, a mantra that she's repeated over and over again and she's not quite sure if she's lying to herself.

It's a flash of anger and hurt and betrayal because she was tired of Charlie denying things. Of questioning whether she had cheated, of whether she was loved. "Listen to me carefully Charlie. I never cheated on you, I have _never_ cheated on you. This child is yours. I _do_ love you, what I couldn't love and why I wanted this divorce was because I was _sick_ of it. You were cheating on me and maybe you didn't get to the point where you kissed someone or you put your dick into another woman but you cheated on me. We didn't talk about anything, you stopped trying so stop it. Stop treating me like I'm the bad guy in this." Santana exhales. "I want to make this work Charlie. I need to make this work, we can't fight over everything and nothing anymore. We just can't."

"This isn't _nothing_ Santana," Charlie snaps at her. "You _left_ , you withheld information from me and you never gave me a chance to fix it. So yes this whole mess _is_ your fault. And I didn't cheat on you. You're the one that shut down first and you began to pick at _everything._ Since we met I have had this massive crush on you, and then it turned to love. I loved you Santana more than anything. I loved you and you told me that you didn't love me anymore. Every couple goes through rough patches that doesn't mean that you nuke it. It doesn't mean you hide the fact that you're pregnant from me. That's why I'm not here _for you_ Santana. I'm here for my _daughter_ and that's what I'm going to focus on from here on in. She's my number one priority." Charlie finishes looking at Santana and swallows. "I'll wait outside."

Santana stares as Charlie walks out, there is so much feelings and she can't even begin to sort them. Anger, hurt, devastation and loneliness crash over. Charlie no longer cared and a huge part of her just felt like she was just some vessel to carry Charlie's child. It was the only thing that was going to tie them together. This wasn't what she wanted and they needed to get past this, they needed to start again and that's what she wanted.


	12. Chapter 12

"You haven't asked me to prom yet," Elaine said, there was a note of irritation in her voice as she looked at her girlfriend who was busy reading a history book. Charlie didn't respond and she let out an irritated noise which alerted Charlie to her current mood. This was ridiculous she had already been asked out by several other people and when she had pointed out she had a girlfriend they were all shocked. They thought it had been over for months. Charlie still didn't respond and Elaine put her hand on Charlie's book.

Charlie put her book down slowly and looked at Elaine who looked, for the most part, sufficiently irritated. "I have to ask you? We're dating asking you to this event seems silly right? I thought we would just go together." Charlie said with a shrug.

"It's a _month_ to prom Charlie, how are you not taking this seriously. Do you have something ready that matches my dress? I got it all the way back in September." When Charlie blinks slowly Elaine's anger flares at this. "I sent you about a million pictures Charlie."

She couldn't remember, September was months ago and this hadn't exactly been high of her things to do. But she knew that this was one of those trap things and she couldn't give just any answer so she slapped on a fake smile. She could always look up the dress later. "You looked amazing in that dress—"

"What color was it?" Elaine demanded catching Charlie off guard. She knew Charlie well enough to know when she was trying to squirm out of the situation.

Charlie winced and forced herself to remember, but she honestly couldn't. "Red?" It was the first color that popped into mind and judging from the furious look it was the wrong answer. The very wrong answer and she immediately backed up.

"It's _purple_ ," Elaine hisses poking Charlie in the chest hard. "You know my favorite color!" There was another blank look on Charlie's face and _livid_ didn't began to cover it. "We've been dating since we were _freshmen_. How the hell don't you know what my favorite color is?"

"I—forgot?" Charlie says weakly. This wasn't going rather well.

It was the wrong answer and Elaine blew up, "You forgot? You forgot?" Her voice was getting higher and she didn't care if she was attracting a crowd. She pokes Charlie's chest hard and she doesn't care if she's hurting her. "You forgot my birthday this year. You _forgot_ a lot of things lately. Honestly you've been a shitty girlfriend lately. I've been talking about prom for ages and you were supposed to make it a magical night."

Charlie rubs the back of her neck and looks around but none of her friends are around, and Quinn isn't here to bail her out of this situation. "Elaine, calm down please. I'm sorry. I've just got a lot on my mind with universities and filling out scholarship information. It's important."

"You know what we're done," Elaine says finally. She couldn't take it, Charlie was a shitty girlfriend. An excellent lover but an incredibly shitty girlfriend. "I'm _important_. You don't think I don't know about your stupid obsession with Santana Lopez? You think I'm stupid?"

"Santana and I are _just_ friends. Elaine—" Charlie said, Santana had made that very clear.

"Four years and never once have you ever said I love you back. Four years and all I see is you following around Santana making sure that _she_ feels better, that she feels good. That she feels pretty and loved and maybe I shouldn't have fucking ignored it and wasted my time with you." With that Elaine stormed off leaving Charlie standing there mutely, as she pushed her way through the crowd.

Charlie rubbed the back of her neck, and glanced around sinking a bit when people shook their heads and gave her dirty looks. She was unsure if she should go after Elaine and beg her. Or just let it go. Sure the sex was nice but they didn't have anything in common and she found it dreary to listen to her all the time and she was personally sure that if she had asked Elaine the same questions she wouldn't be able to answer it. Charlie looks around and then takes a seat and picks up her history book, despite what Elaine thought, she really had been going over scholarships. Something that Elaine had no interest in doing, her dad wasn't paying for her tuition or Quinn's like he had with Frannie, which meant she'd need to find another way to pay for the university fees. The essay wasn't going to write itself.

* * *

Charlie Fabray was finally single. It was a relationship that had lasted for most of high school, and it had been the talk of the school for weeks. It was probably due to the fact that it had been a very public break up, with Elaine. They had been a power couple on their own, they had been the longest couple throughout high school. They had broken up a month before prom. It was finally over. She had expected Charlie to make some grand gesture but Elaine was furious that Charlie hadn't begged her to come back yet. The most irritating thing was that Charlie had retreated. She hadn't asked her out. In fact they had barely spoken in the entire month. If anything Charlie was openly avoiding her. But prom was a week away and she wanted to know what Charlie's plans were.

Santana finally spotted Charlie sitting at a desk and reading while eating her bagged lunch. All she needed to do was ask Charlie that was it, that's all she needed to do. "Charlie?" Hazel eyes look up at and Charlie raises a brow at her, and her lips twitch upward and Santana flushes a bit. There wasn't anything amusing about this, and all she needed to do was ask Charlie. "You're taking me to prom."

There wasn't a question in the statement and Charlie paused for a long moment. "I'm taking you to prom? As in I don't have a choice in the matter?" Charlie asks.

"You've never really had a choice, I'm not going to Prom stag, and I also refuse to settle for anything less than the best," Santana says. "It's _my_ prom, and I want to kick Quinn's ass at this. Like hell we're going to have a hobbit as prom queen. The crown is _mine_."

"So you want me to go as your prop to make you look good?" Charlie asks though there is an amused note in her voice at what Santana had just said. She didn't even want to go to prom, it seemed like a pain in the ass. But if Santana was asking her, she bites her lip and stands up.

Santana rolls her eyes, "Of course not, I'm telling you we're going as friends Charlie. I mean Quinn says that you don't even want to go, but that's probably because you're going alone. It's _prom_ , it's supposed to be one of those nights you remember forever. So you're going, because staying at home and playing video games is silly."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, "No—I don't want to go as your friend." Santana frowned at this and Charlie quickly held up her hands. "I—like you Santana, I'm in _love_ with you. I can't do the just friends thing anymore. So I can't go to the prom with you just as your friend—but maybe as something more?" Charlie asked exhaling. She wasn't good at being other people's girlfriends especially when she was clearly in love with Santana. Elaine might have had a point and she was going to give this whole thing—one more proper try. She'd been avoiding Santana because she didn't want her to seem like the rebound she deserved better than that. Better from her.

Santana hesitated for a moment, dating Charlie would change everything. And if they broke up—that would change things. It would change everything. It was what she wanted, but things wouldn't be as easy. Her Abuela was not going to be thrilled with this turn of events, but she wanted it. Charlie shoots her a nervous look and Santana smirks and pats Charlie's hand. She'd deal with the consequences later. "Fine, but you have a week to make sure that your outfit matches my dress, and I expect a corsage."

Charlie paused for a moment and then flashed Santana a huge grin as it suddenly registered as she leaned in and pressed her lips against Santana's wrapping her arms around her. Four years. It had been four bloody years and this finally felt right, she wouldn't make the same mistakes and she'd never let Santana go.

Santana kissed back relaxing for a moment, before she was filled with that sense of dread, if this didn't work then they would be done. She pulls back and places a hand on Charlie's chest. "Are you sure?" She knew what she was and sure Charlie had been her friend for the past four years but that didn't mean they couldn't break up. Then she'd lose her—

"Santana. I have never been surer of anything in my life." Charlie says with conviction, it seems to work as Santana calms down for a second. The worried look replaced by that devilish smirk, and before Charlie can rethink her position and quite possibly run away Santana has pulled her into a kiss. Four years and she knows—that she's going to marry Santana someday.


	13. Chapter 13

"You know you and mom didn't have to get me all these things, I could have simply ordered them online and had them delivered. Amazon does that you know," Santana says as she fiddles with the instruction manual. Her parents had gone out and bought her baby supplies and her dad had taken the day off to help her set things up.

Miguel was quiet for a moment as he shook the frame to make sure it was sturdy. "You don't need to go to Amazon to get a crib Santana. Your ex-wife should have gone out and gotten you a damn crib, and all the baby supplies you two would need." He inhaled sharply when he noticed Santana's face fall and he sighed. Talking about her was still very much off limits.

Miguel Lopez rolled his eyes, "You shouldn't have needed to go to Amazon, your _wife_ should be here _attempting_ to read these instructions and putting it together." Miguel informed Santana he was still very much annoyed by the whole prospect. "If you want me to have a 'stern' talking to with her, then just say the word."

It brings a smile to Santana's face but she immediately tries to straighten her face. She couldn't give her dad ideas. "Charlie is a pacifist, I imagine it'll be a lot of running away on her part to keep you from kicking her ass."

Miguel shook his head at this. "You need someone who can protect you and your daughter. You know I never liked her anyway."

This time it was Santana's turn to roll her eyes. "You liked Charlie just fine. If I remember clearly she asked for your permission and you practically told her to do it the next day." Santana reminded her father.

"Yes, well I still remember catching you with that _boy_. He set a low bar and she more than exceeded my expectations. If I had thought that she'd cheat on you—I wouldn't have given my blessings. I never thought that she would leave you like this. That she'd cheat on you and leave you alone and raising a child on your own. Just like her damn father."

Santana bites her lip. It's the same conversation that they've always had. "I was the one that divorced her. I'm the one that handed her the divorce papers. She said she didn't cheat. And she said she's going to be in our child's life—she did show up to the appointment. So I believe her—I just—she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. Just the child."

Miguel looked at Santana for a moment, and then turned to look back at the crib that he was still in the middle of fixing up. "I think I prefer that Puckerman fellow that you dated, my estimation of her character just keeps falling. You two have a child together, you put your shit aside so you can raise your kid right. Getting divorced might be difficult and you might miss her terribly Santana, but I think it's for the best. Putting the child first doesn't mean showering her with attention, being a parent is difficult enough by yourself. But you two need to get on the same page when it comes to parenting. Which means putting your shit aside and getting on the same page. Doesn't matter in my book if you hate the mother of your child and love your kid. You don't want that resentment that you feel that hatred infecting your child so she takes it out on her mother, and if she doesn't get it together, then I'm going to insist that you limit her time with your daughter. Or at least have supervised visits."

"I just—I want her back. I want my wife back, not the one that's been lingering around for months and goes off and buys a sports car at the drop of a hat. We used to be a team, yeah I may have bossed her around a bit but—we were a team. That's what I want, Charlie back—I miss her—and I don't think that I could do this without her."

"Santana you know your mother and I are going to support you in anything that you do. Even your abuela is willing to support you—even if she's torn on being disappointed that you broke your wedding vows. And looking for a nice Latino doctor for you to marry and take care of you." Miguel snorted at the annoyed expression that crossed Santana's face. "My point is that we'll support you in whatever choice you make. But you're pregnant and you're still working full time, and I can see how tired you are. You don't need this extra stress, she should be working for your forgiveness not the other way around. So if she doesn't want to help you, if she doesn't want to deal and be an adult and do right by her kid completely then even though it hurts you need to cut her out. It's just as simple as that. You got divorced for a reason and even though I don't agree with the principle of divorce, you made your choice and from where I'm sitting, it was the right one."

Santana was quiet for a moment, "There are times—when I feel like it was the right decision and there are times when it wasn't. I miss her, I hate doing this alone and the baby's not even here yet. There are moments, when I know that Charlie would have reconnected immediately once she found out and that she'd be here attempting badly to fix the crib, while I tried not to laugh at her, we'd be deciding things together and picking out a bigger place and going to those stupid Lamaze classes together, and Charlie would probably be touching me all the time, trying to feel the baby kick from day one and speaking to my stomach. I know Charlie. As much as she didn't want kids slowing her down she would have accepted it." Santana was quiet for a moment. "I didn't want it to be because of that—I didn't want her to reconnect because of the child." Santana shrugs. "Charlie is Charlie—and nothing has changed not really. Not since her last girlfriend, I didn't know why it would be different now."

Miguel frowned ever so slightly, "If you just let me talk to her, I'm sure I could sort all this out."

Santana snorts at this, "You'd probably end up killing her. Which would mean that the next thing I know young men would start showing up at my door, telling me about how abuela sent them to talk to me." Santana said with a roll of her eyes as her father laughed.

* * *

Frannie took a seat on Charlie's new couch as she watched her two sister's attempting to put together a stroller. Charlie had gotten herself a bigger three bedroom apartment, and was in the process of converting one of the bedrooms into a nursery. "So. How is the—parasite?"

Quinn looked over at Frannie and rolled her eyes, "Beth is fine." Quinn frowns as she studies the stroller which had fallen apart on them the moment they had put it together to test it.

"I wasn't talking about your parasite Quinn," Frannie says with a sniff and takes a sip of the wine. "The other parasite."

Charlie shrugged from where she was reading the papers trying to figure out where they went wrong. "I don't know, Santana tells me when to show up and I show up for appointments and stuff. That's about it when it comes to information. I mean the ultrasound looked good and it's mine so that's a positive."

Quinn frowned slightly, "What do you mean you don't know? Charlie. I knew where Rachel was at every moment during the day. Do you remember how many times I had to race home because Rachel didn't sound right?"

"You know the only reason I asked for your help is because I wanted to set all this up, and I mistakenly thought that you knew what you were doing." Charlie said with an irritated huff. What if her child had been in that shoddily put together stroller. "I didn't ask you for some commentary on my life choices. I'm focusing on my kid. Which is what I'm supposed to do. Santana decided to get divorced. I'm just giving her all the space in the world."

"Why did Santana decided to divorce you anyway?" Frannie asked, it was as much interest as she was taking in Charlie's life as ever. "I mean I can think of many of your undesirable traits, but marriage implies that you're aware of those traits and you're planning to live with them." There was a note of bitterness in her voice that her sisters detected.

"Dad cheated on mom, she had enough she left him. I mean seriously it's been years and they're both over it. So you need to get over it. Dad is an asshole." Quinn said bluntly.

Frannie made a face and turned to Charlie, "And now you know how dad feels. You know he wants to try again with you. The both of you—if you just gave him a chance."

"Dad is an asshole, and no I don't know how dad feels. Mom caught the two of them together at home in _their_ bed. So don't tell me that I know how dad feels. I didn't cheat on my wife. Were we having some intimacy levels, we were. Every couple goes through them. Santana left—and I don't know why she did."

"She thought you were having an affair," Quinn said studying her sister carefully.

"I wasn't having an affair! I mean yeah we weren't having sex but that doesn't mean that I was sleeping with someone else," Charlie snaps at Quinn. "I don't cheat."

"Except for all the times you cheated on Elaine with Santana," Quinn says and Charlie flushes angrily. "How many times did I catch you two—looking like you had been kissing? Or the necklace that you bought for Elaine but gave to Santana. Charlie you're the worst kind of cheater there is."

"I never had s

ex with Santana when I was with Elaine—"

"Not what I'm talking about. I know you didn't 'cheat' in the traditional sense. Not like dad did, but you did cheat on Elaine and she called you out on that publically. You were in love with someone else and all that emotional connection that you should have forged with Elaine was going to Santana. You two were basically dating without calling each other your girlfriend."

"I was in love with Santana, I have always been in love with Santana. Why do you think I gave Puck kidney shots whenever I could? Because I loved Santana—that hasn't changed. But I'm not cheating on her with anyone. I'm not cheating on her with anyone because I don't have feelings for anyone else." Charlie said in an annoyed tone. "Again, I asked you hear so you can help me put together all of the baby stuff—because I thought you did this all before."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I had the stroller put together _in_ store. And you know what I did? I had the guy come from the store to set all this up. You shouldn't be a cheap ass. And I'm not going to let you pretend that you're in the right here when you were so wrong Charlie."

"Even if I did cheat on Elaine with Santana, the reason was because I loved Santana more than anything. The same can't be applied here because I'm still in love with Santana. I just—I'm angry at her. I'm so angry at her, and right now I can't be around her. I just can't."

Frannie looked between her sisters from where she was still sipping on some wine. She didn't get her hands dirty. But their jobs meant that they were constantly bickering with each other. "So who was the girl?"

"Dani," Charlie says with a shrug.

"You know the rules about fraternization right?" Frannie says immediately.

"If I was going to have an affair it certainly wouldn't be the cliché secretary." Charlie snips at Frannie. "Dani is a friend, and she's helpful. I mean, yeah we spend time with each other. You spend time with Kitty and you spend time with whoever your personal assistant of the week is. That doesn't mean that I'm cheating." Charlie taps the stroller and it falls apart on them and she makes a face. She nudges it with her foot and it breaks apart even more. "That's it, we're going to find someone to do this for us."

Quinn snorts, "Charlie—if you love Santana you're going to need to work on it. Who knows you two can still get married again, you can still fix things."

Charlie didn't say anything, "I can't. It's not something that I can wave my hands at and everything will be okay. Because it's _not_ okay. Things won't ever be the same again—and I don't care about her anymore. Just my kid."

"Bullshit. You're just like dad—you know he still loves mom right?" Frannie said and she was met with a groan. "Look he's old and he has a lot of regrets and he misses mom. You're a bloody liberal you believe in second chances."

"That's oversimplifying things. I believe that our prisons shouldn't be for-profit. I believe that we should focus on rehabilitation. That being said the whole purpose of locking people up and locking them away the sole purpose is to keep the rest of the population safe. If you're referring to the death penalty, I'm opposed to it because the idea of executing even one innocent person makes my skin crawl. The philosophical idea, that to punish murderers we need to murder them doesn't make any sense to me. Plus for someone that thinks the government screws up constantly, the idea that you're okay with the idea that the government has the ability to murder people? That doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

"We're not at work you two, so knock it off." Quinn says immediately, she missed Charlie making light of the situation. She sighs for a moment. "Charlie you believe in rehabilitation which means in theory you believe in second chances. Which means that you need to figure it out with your wife."

"I was talking about our father," Frannie points out.

"I know, maybe we could forgive him for leaving mom, but what we can't forgive him for is abandoning us and spoiling the shit out of you, while we both struggled. We can't forgive him for never picking up the phone, going to our graduation or just being our dad." Quinn said and Charlie nodded. "This isn't on us, this is on him."

"Well, again. I get why you're angry but the way I see it, Charlie isn't going to be any better. I mean how often are you even going to see your kid?" Frannie says with a shrug. "And if Santana does get remarried it's only going to be worse because she'll have a whole new family. Family vacations. You want to take your kid to Disney to make memories with her, see her enjoy all these new things. You can't because Santana and her new family did it already." Frannie looks at the bottle of wine. "You need to pick better wine out next time we're here helping you put together a stroller."

" _Frannie_." Quinn says with a groan when she sees the look of fret on Charlie's face and the jealousy and she doesn't think that Frannie is making it any better. But she's completely unsure, Charlie was—well Charlie. Sometimes Frannie's needling worked in ways that she didn't get. At least maybe they could work things out before the baby was born.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

Santana pressed Charlie against the wall to their Bushwick loft, sharing it with Quinn and Rachel wasn't _ideal_ it certainly put a damper on things between them. But it was far cheaper sharing the rent with them then it was living in the dorms. Their sex life which had practically been every day in the summer had practically been non-existent now that they had roommates and they didn't have walls separating them. But Rachel and Quinn were out on some date and Charlie had just come back from work and she had been in the mood for weeks now. "Pants off." Santana barked at her girlfriend.

She was exhausted, full classes and then a four hour shift where she had been waitressing and getting shitty tips, but what Santana wanted she would give to her. Beside she'd be an idiot to turn down sex right now, she missed it to. She began to work on her belt trying to remove it but it wasn't fast enough for Santana who smacked her hands away and did it herself. Charlie blinked and a small smile crossed her face as she wrapped her arms around Santana and spun her so she was pressed against the wall and she leaned in and kissed her deeply. She grinded her hips against Santana she was already hard and the moment that Santana managed to drop her pants she pins Santana's hands above her head and kisses her neck.

Santana lets out a pleased moan, and it takes her a moment to realize that they don't have the time to have to have a marathon sex session, where they brought each other to multiple orgasms, they had time for one maybe two if she was lucky. "Charlie," She says in a tone that causes Charlie to stop and pull away from her neck so she can look at her, and with a bit of effort she manages to free her hands. "Bed. Now." She manages to get out after a second. At least they'd have a bit of privacy if either Rachel or Quinn showed up. She unzips the hoodie she stole from Charlie revealing that she was naked under it. Charlie flashes her a lustful grin and turns to scamper off to the bedroom and she can't help it and spanks Charlie's ass, causing her to stop and turn to her. "Bed." Santana repeats a bit more forcefully.

Santana is in one of _those_ moods, and Charlie nods and laughs before giving her a mock salute and scampering off to their makeshift bedroom. She tosses her shirt somewhere, not caring where it lands because it's not important. Right now what's important is making her girlfriend and the love of her life feel good. She feels a bit guilty, she's been busy lately and she hasn't been making enough time for Santana, but she'd do better. Maybe a weekend away, on her next free weekend. Charlie looks up and watches as Santana has the wherewithal to slide their curtain doors close before straddling her. And it's sudden, Santana kissing her deeply as she feels her attempting to guide her hard-on into her. With a bit of effort Charlie grabs the base of her dick holding it steady and moves her hips upward. She finds home on her first try and Santana moans into the kiss.

They need their own place is the first thing she thinks about as she pushes Charlie onto her back after breaking the kiss and without much fanfare she begins to take what she wants resting her hands on Charlie's breasts and groping them as she begins to ride, slowly at first getting used to Charlie's size. It had been a while since they had sex and she can feel the stretch of Charlie's girth taking her. " _Fuck_." She breathes out, all her stress melting away. She hears Charlie's breath hitch as she continues riding. She glances down at Charlie and tweaks her nipples causing Charlie to buck a bit into her. Riding Charlie was one of her favorite positions, actually bossing Charlie around seemed one of her favorite things to do and Charlie loved it. Sure there were times when Charlie was clearly the more dominant between them, where she wanted to go hard and fast. But today it was just about getting off as quickly as they could.

Charlie bucks her hips up as she rests her hands on Santana's hip, moving them in tandem with Santana's groaning and grunting as she pushes herself through the exhaustion and groans, it's been far too long and she feels her control slipping. "Santana—" she groans.

"Don't you dare," Santana gently swats Charlie side, it has been awhile and Charlie was always a quick shot after waiting a long time to have sex, and she couldn't spend nearly as much time in the shower as she wanted with three other people sharing the one bathroom. She's close to, and it's simply about speeding up and getting the right friction. But Charlie bucks her hips up hard and it hits her in just the right spot and as Charlie starts to climax, Santana starts right after her. Charlie always made these adorable little grunts when she came and this was no exception as she finishes and slumps onto the bed.

Charlie flushed at her quickness. She was better than that, but it wasn't really her fault. Being inside Santana was fantastic and she was gorgeous—and she was so in love with her. "Sorry, Santana—it's been awhile and I haven't masturbated in what feels like forever," Charlie apologized. She was already soft and it would take a few minutes before she was ready to go again.

Santana slowly pulled herself off Charlie, some of Charlie's cum immediately gushed slid out, she had definitely shot a decent amount this time. She kisses Charlie's forehead gently before falling onto the bed beside her and feeling Charlie's arms wrap around her. "You were fine Charlie, I was just thinking that we need to get our own place, or you know have Quinn and Rachel take a very long vacation."

Charlie laughs and nuzzles Santana yawning, "Frannie is thinking of moving out of her apartment and buying a place of her own with her trust fund—maybe I can convince her to let us sublet the place. She'll probably overcharge us, because it's Frannie and she's totally a bitch. I might need to pick up more shifts but we can make it work. Plus it's in a better area and fully furnished."

Santana kisses Charlie gently, she always seemed to want to give her the world. But going to Frannie would annoy her more than anything. Because her father had paid for the apartment and it would be like taking a handout from Russell Fabray. "You picking up extra shifts, defeats the purpose." Santana says and Charlie lets out a tired laugh. "We'll figure it out."

"We will." Charlie admits and pulls Santana closer as she struggles to stay awake. She knows she's failing but a quick nap won't kill her. "Love you," she mumbles.

Santana runs a hand along Charlie's side and kisses her gently, "Love you too."


	15. Chapter 15

Going into labor—was not fun. She had read what to expect her mother had told her what to expect. Santana had quickly come to realize that they were liars who were trying to protect her. Her abuela had said it would simply feel like bad period cramps. She was never going to trust any of them again. It was much more intense than _bad_ period cramps. Every time a contraction came, her lower back would slowly begin to seize up. They would spasm unbearably for a few seconds before slowly subsiding. She had called Charlie as she was taken to the hospital but she had gotten her voicemail box.

There was no longer that bitter cold whenever she talked to Charlie, and Charlie did always pick up these days. Even at three am in the morning when she just wanted to hear Charlie's voice. She came to all the appointments and things were _better_. It takes her a moment of wondering why now? When a painful contraction hits and she feels her back spasm again. Her mind clears as the pain eases and it finally hits her that Charlie was probably on set. She never took her phone on set. Her hands shake as she tries call her office, but yet another contraction hits and she lets out a pain-filled groan as she put into a wheel chair, it doesn't take long to wheel her inside. She was never ever doing this again. She was never having sex again, and when another particularly nasty contraction hits, she nearly doubles over in the chair. This was way worse than what they'd said it be. "I need to call my wife—she needs to be here." Santana said as she was swarmed by a few nurses. It's a slip of the tongue but right now that's who she wants. If only so she can yell at Charlie for doing this to her. This was something that was important to Charlie and it was important to her. They needed to be there for one another.

"Santana is that you?"

Santana flicks her eyes up and looks at Dr. Berry who was handing a chart to a nurse and moving towards her. "Hey Dr. Berry—I need Charlie here like yesterday—can you? I think she's on set so—" she nearly doubles over again, her lower back spasms again.

Leroy Berry nods, "Of course do you want your family here as well?" he asks switching to a professional tone. He didn't know the numbers but he was sure that Rachel did and she could mobilize everyone. Santana nods and Leroy frowns the contractions are coming rather rapidly from Santana's reaction and he looks at a nurse. "Get her into a room. I think the baby is coming faster than she anticipated. She shouldn't be in this much pain." Santana lets out a pained groan and she gets wheeled away. He immediately pulls out his own phone and dials Rachel. He waits for a moment, before he hears the sound of someone picking up. "Rachel—"

"Hi pawpaw," Beth said with a smile.

Leroy blinked for a moment and smiled, "Beth, I need you to give your mom the phone," he says slowly. He hears Beth pout but there is some shuffling and finally he hears his daughter's voice. "Rachel, you need to get Charlie down to the hospital and call Santana's family—the baby is coming. It's coming soon, I'm going to go check to make sure that Santana is getting the best treatment available." He waits until Rachel gives him some confirmation before he hangs up and goes to check on Santana.

* * *

Dani Harper blinked as the phone beside her rang, she pulled her eyes off the live webcast that she generally watched. Charlie was cutting down Frannie's argument about the current about money in politics. It was rare for the phone to ring but she paused the live feed, clapping as Charlie made yet another devastating point. She was on fire lately and she had been fielding calls about Charlie joining a mainstream news organization. Breaking up with Santana had been the best thing to ever happen to Charlie, a little bit of fixing up, which she had done and Charlie was ready to take on the world. With a smile she picks up the phone, "This is the Edge Studios, Charlie Fabray's line. My name is Dani Harper how may I help you today?"

Rachel exhaled deeply glad that she had managed to get Dani on the first try. Live broadcasts were usually the only period she wasn't able to get in touch with Quinn unless Kitty was around her desk. "Dani, its Rachel. I know they're in the middle of a broadcast but you need to get Charlie right away. Santana went into labor and was taken to the Cowenburg Medical Center."

"Rachel—they're right in the middle of a broadcast—" Dani said the bitterness in her voice. Charlie was finally acting like a professional instead of goofing off at work.

"Santana is in _labor_ , this might be the perfect chance for them to put their differences behind them and reconnect," Rachel said excitedly, nothing had made her feel closer to Quinn then when she was there. It helped build a bond between all three of them. "It's the Cowengburg Medical Center." Rachel repeated again. "And if you could tell Quinn, that's where Beth and I will be. She's super excited to meet her new cousin."

Dani was once again about to remind Rachel that they were in the middle of a live show, when Rachel hangs up and she frowns. They are right in the middle of a show and it's like no one took their jobs seriously. Charlie was finally making huge strides and convincing people that being progressive was the way to go. It didn't matter that a number of fans had dipped a bit, they had more than made up for it and they were becoming more reputable. Dani glanced at the time, there was an hour left in the show. And the Cowenburg Medical Center was only fifteen minutes away.

An internal debate raged on inside her, Charlie had been miserable leading up to the breakup. She could see it, of course it probably had something to do with how exhausted she was from sleeping on the couch alone. She had pestered Charlie until she had simply told her. It was terrible for her back and at least now Charlie wasn't miserable. While everyone seemed to think that Charlie would be happy—she was happy right now. And Santana was only going to ruin it. Labor usually lasted for a decent amount of time, Charlie would finish the show before she informed her that Santana was in labor. It was for Charlie's own good.

* * *

Rachel tried to grab Beth who ran up to her grandpa the moment she saw him. Rachel shook her head as her dad picked Beth up, she wanted to remind him that his back wasn't what it used to be but he seemed happy for now. She'd remind him later, and smiles when she spots an angry Miguel who has stormed out of the hallway and she frowns for a moment and goes to meet him, seeing Maribel following him. "Dr. Lopez?" Rachel asks. "What's going on?"

"What's going is that Charlie _isn't taking any responsibility_. My daughter is in there having a precipitous labor and Charlie is nowhere to be found. She's at that damn job of hers."

Rachel frowns because even though she suspects Charlie is still furious with Santana there was no way that Quinn would stand for it. From what she had heard from Quinn things were thawing between them and Charlie had been excited to meet her daughter and was constantly reading parenting books to make sure she did it right. "One moment—I told Dani that Santana was in labor."

"Dani? You mean the person that Santana is sure that Charlie is having an affair with?" Maribel asked, speaking up and turning to Rachel.

Rachel frowned, that was new information to her, and she was going to have a talk with Quinn who should have informed her of this little fact. "It's possible that Charlie doesn't know and going over there. Now if you hold on, I'll get to the bottom of this, and if Charlie is being stubborn and Quinn is letting it slide—" Rachel trails off and fishes out her phone and calls Quinn's work number.

"Rachel?" Kitty asks from where she was rearranging her desk and starting the process to get more stories ready for the next day which included research for Quinn. She knew the number well.

"Kitty, did Dani tell Charlie or anyone that Santana is in labor? I called her nearly half an hour ago. Charlie is fifteen minutes away and I shouldn't have beaten her to the hospital!"

Kitty paused for a moment, there hadn't been any disruptions to the show today not that she was aware of. "I don't think so—look if that's true then I'm going to go tell her right now Rachel." Kitty said, she's about to hang up when she pauses and brings the phone back to her ear. "Rachel which hospital?"

"Cowenburg Medical Center." Rachel repeated calmly and looked up at Miguel. "She didn't know, Kitty's gone to tell her immediately. Charlie wouldn't miss this, I know they're currently figuring things out but she wants to be part of this child's life. She does. Every moment." And she knew her wife, if Quinn needed to drag Charlie here kicking and screaming for her to be responsible and to take care of her daughter, then she would.

"She'd better be here, or I'm going to _insist_ that Santana withhold custody. It's not like she's in another country, she's fifteen minutes away. Nothing is more important than the birth of her child," Miguel snapped at Rachel angrily. He was furious, his daughter wanted her irresponsible, inconsiderate wife. If she couldn't show up now, then when would she show up? His daughter deserved better, he didn't care who it was but she deserved better than this. He couldn't imagine leaving Maribel alone while she was pregnant, or letting her go through the labor all by herself.

* * *

"Look what I'm saying is that it shouldn't matter how rich you are, your voice is not more important than the lowest amongst us. A very small part of the population should not control our politicians and—" Charlie said frowning when she looked over at Kitty who was waving at her trying to get her attention. "Sorry—they just brought out the teleprompter," Charlie said to the live audience.

Quinn relaxed, Charlie had been on a tear lately and even Frannie was having a hard time cutting Charlie down, truthfully she agreed with Charlie but she was meant to be the voice from the center the person who brought it all together. She eyed the teleprompter and paused for a moment before practically grabbing Charlie and pushing her out of her seat. Her twin seemed to be in a state of shock and she could see the panic flit across Charlie's face. She knew that feeling well when Rachel had informed her that her water broke, she had forgotten their plan entirely and had run around their apartment like her head was cut off. "Charlie _go_." Quinn snapped at her twin smacking her upside the head.

It seemed to snap Charlie out of it and she scrambled of the ground ripping her earpiece and microphone off and dropping them on the table as she ran off set, "What do you mean she's in labor and she's been like that for a while? Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me!" Charlie snapped as Kitty filled her in.

"There's a taxi outside waiting for you Charlie, you need to go now." Kitty said, as the crew scrambled to get Charlie out the door and into the cab in record time. They were practically shoving things into her arms.

Charlie glances at the messages on her phone as she waits for the elevator, she'd take the stairs but they are on the tenth floor. She's missed nearly forty messages, with the earliest one being from Santana nearly an hour and a half ago. She doesn't quite know what's going on but there would be heads that will roll for this as the elevator gets to where it needed to be and slides open for her.

"I already told the taxi driver that you've got to get to the Cowenburg Medical Center," Kitty calls out to Charlie who nods and hits the lobby button repeatedly trying to get the damn elevator to move faster. The doors finally closes and she looks at Dani who is skulking around her desk. Kitty doesn't hesitate to walk over there, "Are you kidding me! Rachel told you that Santana was in _labor_ and you didn't stop the broadcast?" she hisses at Dani.

"Labor lasts a long time—I didn't think it was that big of a deal and the way that Santana treats Charlie—" Dani said defensively towards Kitty not knowing that the two Fabray sisters were grabbing their things.

The show had needed to be postponed, they'd do another show but hopefully the audience understood that family came first. They were only fifteen minutes out anyway, but Quinn stopped as she heard what Dani was saying. "The way Santana treats Charlie is none of your concern." She said testily coming to their defense. "Santana is pregnant with Charlie's child and Charlie wanted to be there, she has enough to worry about without you coming in her and messing it up!"

Frannie places a hand on Quinn's shoulder. She was going to spend an awful lot of time at a hospital when she really did have better things to do and then she was going to be forced to hold a drooling mess that smelled weird and she looks at Dani. "Pack your things, and get off the property. You're fired." Frannie is about to pull Quinn along with her when she stops and looks at Kitty. "Make sure she doesn't steal any office supplies or it's coming out of your salary."

Quinn rolled her eyes. _"Frannie_." It seemed petty to her.

"What? Do you know how much office supplies cost? They're expensive!" Frannie said with a shrug. "We're not made of money!"

* * *

Charlie nearly broke her ankle as she hopped out of the taxi after dumping most of her money into the guy's hands, telling him to keep the change. She didn't care if she short changed him or gave him far too much money. She needed to get inside and see Santana and be there for her. She rushes in hopping on one foot, she had definitely sprained the damn thing tripping on the curb. She spots Rachel and the rest of Santana's family. She approaches but takes a step back when Miguel gives her a dirty look. "Rachel which room?" she asks.

"Down the hall, third door on the right. Charlie you need to move the baby is coming like _now_." Rachel says holding Beth back from trying to hug tackle her aunt. She watches as Charlie takes off down the hallway and looks at Miguel. "I know she's not perfect—but Quinn promises me she loves your daughter very much and she did make it?" Rachel offers but Miguel only makes a sour face at her.

Charlie slides past the door wincing as she does but she spots Santana surrounded by a swarm of doctors and without knocking enters the room moving towards her, dodging the nurses who try and stop her. She barely hears the doctor say she's crowning as she reaches for Santana's hand and feels the intense grip as Santana finally locks eyes with her. "I'm here. I'm here Santana."

Santana gives Charlie an angry look as she squeezes she had cut it incredibly close, and she wants to yell at Charlie to scream at her but a pained yelled cuts through the air as she all but crushes Charlie's hand. It feels like she's being torn apart and she had made damn sure to tell them to drug her. She's sweating and she feels horrible and if her Child had Charlie's massive head she was going to murder her. It felt like she was trying to push a watermelon out of her vagina.

"Push?" Charlie says wincing in pain and quickly shuts her mouth when Santana gives her the most withering look. "You've got this?" she tries again but there was a reason she had never tried out for the Cheerleading team.

"I've got the head, you're nearly there the hard part is done," a nurse says to Santana, who begins to curse her out in Spanish. She looks over at Charlie who is wincing and she sighs, she's more than used to the abuse that gets hurled at her.

"You hear that Santana we're going to meet Charlie Junior soon," Charlie said patting Santana's hand. Her plan to distract Santana works as Santana stops cursing out the nurse and turns her rage and annoyance out on her. She only recognizes a few words but she winces whenever Santana says her name.

Santana was currently getting extraordinarily creative with her Spanish as she pushes once again. It hurts but not nearly as bad as before, and truthfully she just wants to get it all out. Her anger and frustration on her ex-wife. She was late, she had nearly missed it, and left her here alone. It's the sound of her daughter's first cry that tears Santana away from Charlie and she looks at Isabela. She looks like a little alien that's covered in goo and is currently bawling loudly screaming as the doctors cut the cord. She reaches her arms out but the nurses don't hand her daughter to her right away instead she's being moved away so she can be washed off. It takes a moment and finally the nurse hands her daughter, Isabela into her arms, and the reasons that she was so angry that she was furious ebb away.

* * *

She was far too tired to be hurt and angry, let alone be furious that Charlie had nearly missed the birth of their daughter. It would come but maybe after the drugs and the sheer exhaustion faded. Right now she was just watching her wife—her ex-wife with their daughter. There was a small bit of her, a tiny voice in her head that was worried that Charlie would just walk out of the room with their daughter. Charlie's threat still very much alive in her head. Charlie had been distracted taking instruction from the nurse about how to hold her properly and was currently treating Isabela who had eventually stopped crying and was currently asleep like she was exceptionally delicate. The worry doesn't fade until Charlie finally lifts her head and looks at her, and Santana sees that her eyes are all wet.

Charlie moves closer to her ex-wife, "Look at we did Santana," Charlie says holding Isabela up before she sits on the bed beside Santana, who scoots over so she can sit beside her. "She's beautiful Santana." Charlie says before glancing over at her. "She's going to grow up and be gorgeous just like you. She looks just like you." Charlie says as she slowly hands Isabela over to Santana, moving her carefully. She makes sure that Santana has her, before making sure that Santana and her daughter was comfortable fussing over them.

Santana shakes her head, "She has your eyes though," Santana says after a moment and looks up at Charlie, who flashes her a very pleased grin. She lets out a tired laugh and looks back at Isabela who is sleeping soundly. She should be worried that she was just like Charlie, impatient, there was barely any relief. "She's perfect," Santana says before kissing Isabela's forehead. She doesn't want to let her daughter go, and sharing her—having her out of her sight for more than a few minutes was going to be torture and she looks over at Charlie. "I didn't think you were going to make it."

Charlie's smile slowly fades, and she reaches and fusses over Isabela for a moment, not answering Santana. Truthfully she felt ashamed. Ashamed that she had been so caught up, so defensive that she had nearly missed one of the happiest days of her life. She doesn't even know where to begin to apologize or explain. "This wasn't something that I wanted to miss. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you—not just today—but for your entire pregnancy. I should have been." Charlie said quietly. "I could blame it on Dani—I could tell you that she didn't tell me—but I should have had my phone on me. I knew you were pregnant, and I knew that we were near the due date—I just, I'm sorry Santana."

Santana is quiet for a long moment thinking over what was said. Charlie had rarely taken any of the blame on their divorce, she had denied and shifted the blame on her most of the time. This was _new_ , it showed awareness that Charlie, rarely ever showed. "You said you never cheated—"

"I never did." Charlie says firmly and bites her lip. "I was never in love with Dani she was just a god send and saved me hours on paperwork—I didn't think—I didn't notice that she was developing feelings. Or maybe I did and I just—you know I didn't care that she liked me." Charlie admits. "It was flattering—and maybe I said too much, we were fighting a lot and I needed a place to vent—it should never have been her."

Santana sighed as she looks at her ex-wife for a moment and then back at Isabela. For the entire portion of the pregnancy that Charlie knew about she had wanted—she had expected Charlie to show up. To be that person that she fell in love with but she never did and now—it felt like it was too late. "Charlie you're going to be a part of her life—I'm not going to take that away from you. We'll figure something out—but I don't think I can just give her to you for the night or something like that. She's too young for that."

Charlie nods, it makes sense, "We have two days to figure it out. Quinn's bringing me an overnight bag and a change of clothes. I'm not going to leave you here all by yourself." Charlie said reaching in and stroking Isabela's little hand. Ten fingers, ten toes, a very full head of hair and she was sleeping soundly. She glanced at Santana who was focusing and cooing gently at Isabela. She wanted her family back. And she hoped that she hadn't mucked things up to the point where Santana would never take her back.

Santana crinkles her nose a bit and looks at Charlie, "You know when she's older we're going to have to keep the Puckerman's of the world away from her," she said and Charlie made a face at this, causing her to let out a tired laugh. She leans into Charlie seeking comfort, she's still in a bit of pain, and she's surprised when Charlie pulls her closer. She relaxes because it feels comfortable. "You know we're going to have to show her to the family eventually."

Charlie snorts a bit, "They can wait for a few more moments, let's enjoy this rare moment of peace and quiet."

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

Santana held Isabela in her arms, watching as her daughter slept. They had lucked out, she had figured with her genetics and Charlie's they'd have a miniature terror on their hands but Isabela was a relatively quiet baby. She hadn't even cried when the rest of her very large extended family had passed her around, everyone wanted to hold the baby—well everyone except Frannie. She was sure that the oldest Fabray was only there because she _had_ to be there not because she wanted to be. But it didn't matter Isabela was the perfect little angel.

"Now—we haven't had time to talk about birth control." Dr. Chin began, she had noticed the change between them the tension was still there but it was less and they seemed to be touching each other a lot more. "But you will be fertile soon and it's best if you—"

Santana shook her head immediately, she didn't know what Dr. Chin thought she was seeing but they were getting along right now. She wasn't going to overcomplicate things by having sex with Charlie, it didn't even make sense. They had gotten divorced for a reason. "I'm not having sex—not with Charlie or anybody. My first priority is Isabela, just like Charlie's is."

Dr. Chin wanted to point out that it was just a precautionary measure, but nodded her head, "It was just a bit of advice, though if you do decide to be intimate again, I suggest, honestly I suggest that you remember to practice safe sex."

Santana nodded and was about to say something when Charlie came back wheeling a wheelchair into the room. "I can walk you know," Santana said making a bit of a face. Charlie hadn't left her side in two days. Her ex-wife wasn't letting them out of her sight. It probably had something to do with the fact that Charlie would go back to her own life right after this. She wasn't comfortable letting Isabella out of her sight, and she had agreed that Charlie could see her whenever she wanted, and for however long she wanted. But this moment between them would end soon, she knew that. They'd go back to fighting, back to pretending that there was nothing wrong, when they were still hurt and angry at each other. Once the new baby smell wore off, she believed they'd be back where they started.

"It's hospital procedure!" Charlie insisted, looking at Dr. Chin who nodded. "See hospital procedure."

"Yes but the nurse is supposed to do it while you bring the car around—" Santana paused for a moment. "Charlie your car is _not_ child safe, it's a two seat sports car."

"I traded it in for a normal family friendly car," Charlie said as she grabbed their overnight bags. "The car is waiting in the loading bay, Quinn brought it over last night and I went to go get it, which is why I took so long. I know what I'm doing Santana." Charlie said with a sniff. "I got the safest car seat on the market to." Charlie added.

Santana bit her lip that wasn't what she was expecting at all but Charlie was trying and she nods, the car thing had been an issue. "You traded in your car? You loved that thing."

"It's just a car Santana—I wanted to be able to drive my little girl out and take her places, and go for walks and stuff. I'm not that irresponsible." Charlie said with an irritated sniff. She had bought the car because they didn't have any kids.

And there it was, the irritation that had been so evident before the divorce was now back and the new baby smell hadn't even disappeared. And Dr. Chin thought that they were going to start having sex. Santana shook her head and slipped into the chair. She didn't know what to say to this, but Charlie shouldn't have waited till Isabela was born to start making plans. Santana exhaled and looked at Dr. Chin who was walking beside them. "So our first appointment is when?"

"I booked an appointment with the pediatrician in two weeks, it's just a wellness visit. It's supposed to be there in case there is something we need to be concerned about. Now, what I need you two to do is keep a journal of how often you change her diapers, and what the consistency is. Also her sleep patterns, most information would be quiet helpful. The doctor's office will give you a call."

Santana took the information in, nodding as they approached the doors and she immediately began to fuss with Isabela making sure that she was dressed warmly and her little hat was on properly as the doors slid open and they approached a silver car that was parked in the drop-off zone. Santana glanced up at Charlie and then the bright silver car. "You got an SUV?"

"Well I was going to get a Prius, but Frannie proceeded to mock me for more than five minutes and I had to weigh whether Frannie making fun of me for the rest of my life was worth it. It's got advanced crash prevention, and she can grow in this car. I did my research." Charlie said. "Plus it's actually pretty decent on gas, so I'm good." Charlie said as she opened the door and held out her hands for Isabela so she could put her in the car seat. Charlie placed her daughter in it and strapped her in, and the reaction was immediate as Isabela seemed to wake and decided to start wailing loudly. Charlie blinks and begins to fuss with the straps thinking it was too tight.

" _Charlie_!" Santana says angrily wondering what the hell her ex-wife was doing.

"I just put her in the seat, I swear!" Charlie says immediately and Santana gives her a withering look and gets out of the chair. "I got this Santana, I can handle it." Charlie says over Isabela's wails. Though she has no idea what to do and she just decides to take Isabela out, and in a few moments settles down. Charlie blinks and looks at her daughter for a moment before moving to put her back in the car seat again, maybe something was pinching her but the car seat looks normal. Once again her daughter began to scream and Charlie made a face.

Santana winced as she got up and moved Charlie to the side so she could see what was going on herself. Isabela had been a perfect little angel, sure there had been crying but she had been fed. And she'd just had a fresh diaper change. Santana pulls Isabela out of the seat and looks at it, "Where did you get it?"

"Babies R Us. I did my research and that's the safest car seat on the market."

"Clearly not the most comfortable," Santana snips as Isabela settles back down in her arms.

"I care about her safety and how am I supposed to test for how comfortable it is. The guy at the store said that he had heard extremely good things about it, as well." Charlie snaps back. She had made sure to do a lot research and read the reviews before she had purchased.

Dr. Chin looked between them and sighed, "Not every newborn takes to the car seat, like you want them to. I think she's wired to be held, which is a good thing. Except you're going to have some _long_ car trips. If you're lucky she might fall asleep.

Santana made a face at this as she put Isabela back down and she started right back up, Santana exhaled. "I'll sit back here with her maybe that will calm her down."

Charlie flicked her eyes to Santana and Isabela and nods and hands Santana the baby bag, and moves to put the rest of their stuff in the trunk before closing it and she sighs, she's not off to a very good start in this parenting business. But she'd do better.

* * *

When Santana had said that Charlie could stay as long as she wanted and for as long as she wanted, she hadn't expected Charlie to appear an hour after she had left with a suitcase. "What are you doing here?" She asked keeping her voice down.

"You said I could stay as long as I wanted and visit whenever I wanted, and I missed her after like three minutes so I'm moving in with you." Charlie says with a bright smile. "I've got six weeks paid off—Frannie complained like hell about it but we overruled her. So I get to help out, and I don't miss anything."

Santana blinks and doesn't move out of the way when Charlie tries to enter her apartment, "Charlie—we're divorced where are you going to sleep? Because you aren't sleeping in my bed and there isn't that much room in the other bedroom for you."

Charlie frowns ever so slightly, "I'll sleep on the couch then. It's no big deal Santana—I just don't want to miss anything and we can take turns waking up. I'll take the first night watch." Charlie moves trying to enter the apartment, she's not going to miss a thing and if that means living on a couch until Isabela's old enough that Santana trusts her to take her home then so be it."

"Charlie, that's not even remotely feasible. You can't live on my couch and just hang around, we'll figure out a schedule or something, but—she's too young. You can visit—"

"No. She's my daughter, you can't just tell me that I have to wait around until you let me see her, or when it's convenient for you," Charlie says. "Besides you're going to need help with groceries, with getting diapers in the middle of the night. It's _easier_ to have me around and I've got six weeks off, what am I supposed to do twiddle my thumbs?"

"Charlie you she's going to sleep most of the day and you _can_ work, it's not like you need to breastfeed her or anything like that, and I can change diapers—"

"She's my daughter, I made her so I should share half of the responsibility—I'm not irresponsible Santana. And I don't abandon people either," Charlie snipped.

Santana froze at this and her anger spiked, and there it was. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours. "You _checked_ _out_!"

"You handed me divorce papers! I didn't check out, I just got tired of you making me feel like shit all the time and criticizing everything I did. Of you never wanting me to be around. I didn't get the right car seat. I didn't get the right stuffed toy, I didn't make the right color choice." Charlie says. "She's my daughter, Santana. I get to make decisions. I get to be a part of her life and make decisions. You want to make decisions with me then that's fine but you can't undercut me all the time and you can't cut me out of her life because you don't like my decisions."

Santana was about to say something when she heard the sputtering cry of Isabela who had just been woken up and she frowns glaring at Charlie, "Thanks a lot," she says and she moves to go check on her daughter but pauses when she hears the rolling of Charlie's suitcase. "Charlie. You aren't staying here."

"Then we can move to my place it's bigger, and it has a spare bedroom for you to use," Charlie said crossing her arms over her chest. It was ridiculous, she had more than enough room in her place for all three of them. Sure she'd need to convert her office back into a bedroom but that would take an afternoon. She could sleep on the couch until then.

Santana bristled at this, "Fine you can sleep on the couch. But you can't leave your crap lying around like you normally do. I'm not cleaning up after an infant _and you_." Santana snaps before moving to finally go see her daughter. She takes a breath when she sees Isabela fussing, and she sighs picking her up. It used to be a lot easier than what it was now. She puts away the anger and just rocks her gently. Things weren't going to get better and this wasn't the world or the environment she wanted to raise Isabela in.


	17. Chapter 17

Charlie stared at the paperwork in front of her, she wasn't actually sure whose health plan Isabela fell under, and she scratched her head tiredly trying to remember what Santana had said. Two weeks and the only thing she knew for certain was that Isabela, loved to scream. Her back hurt, she was exhausted and she was thinking of going back to work just so she could have a few hours of sleep on her desk. She racked her brain trying to remember, they'd been at each other's throats lately and she didn't want to give Santana yet another reason to question her readiness to take care of Isabela. Everything she did wasn't quite right and their little honey moon period was so over. It was right back to the way it was before they had gotten divorced, except now she was on a considerably lumpier couch. And Isabela seemed to be a sentient force who would start crying the moment that she was just about to fall asleep.

She scratched her jaw gently and filled out Santana's insurance, it seemed like what Santana would have wanted, at least she hoped it was, before handing the forms back in. Santana wanted to avoid all the sick children, which was why she was wasn't here. Charlie yawned and went to go sit back down until it was time to call Santana in with Isabela. Though she wasn't quite sure how that was going. Isabela still hated the car seat with a passion no matter what Santana said and did, and it wasn't just _that_ particular brand it was _all_ car seats. They had gone and tried every last one of them. It was a small victory for her, a minor victory that she hadn't chosen wrong, but truthfully she was far too tired. Santana didn't even want her around but she was terrified that if she just went home, she'd miss something. Or Isabela would forget all about her or act like she was a stranger. Santana might hate her, but she didn't want Isabela to hate her or be afraid of her ever.

Convincing Santana to just move into a bigger place wasn't doing all that well either. She didn't know how to frame it in a way that wasn't a power grab on her part. Santana was insistent on being independent, she didn't even like when she brought groceries with her own money. Not that she bought the right things anyway, which lead to more arguments. They argued over _everything_. Well no mostly Santana picked on her for everything, she wasn't holding Isabela right, even if she was. Isabela needed to wear her little hat when they were going outside, even if she personally thought it was too hot. They simply weren't getting along and they were getting in each other's way, and they still couldn't figure out a schedule.

"Isabela Fabray-Lopez?" Charlie glanced up at the nurse and waved at her.

"Just one second," Charlie said as she pulled out her phone and texted Santana before standing up and rubbing at her face, she waited for the nurse and shuffled the journals that she'd been keeping. Charlie shifted a bit as she waited for Santana. It didn't take long and she smiled when she saw her ex-wife and her child. Charlie held out her hands for her little girl and Santana rolled her eyes and handed her over, and they headed into the room.

"You're going to need to take off her clothes so we can get an accurate reading when we weigh her," the nurse said watching as Charlie placed her down on the changing table and began to take off her onesie. The nurse waited before taking Isabela gently and putting her on the scale. Immediately Isabela began to cry and the nurse attempted to soothe her.

Santana frowned and moved to help the nurse, "She likes to be held, she's not really a fan of being put down, she'll fuss even when we're changing her." Santana said to the nurse and put her finger in Isabela's hand letting her daughter squeeze it tightly. Santana smiles, "I think she just likes the attention," she glances at Charlie who frowns immediately.

The implication was clear and Charlie shifts where she's standing. "Says the head cheerleader," Charlie mutters under her breath, she immediately shuts her mouth and looks at the truck wallpaper when Santana turns and shoots her a withering look.

The nurse glances at them and smiles, "The lack of sleep getting to you?" she asks them trying to make conversation as she tries to measure Isabela. "How long have you two been married?"

"Eight years—" Charlie begins.

"We're not," Santana says at the same time and looks at Charlie for a moment, "We're divorced."

The nurse glances at the two of them, and then at Isabela and nods, the tension in the room made sense and she gently tickled Isabela who seemed to have calmed down. "Well, she seems to be perfect but the doctor will be in to see you soon." The nurse said smiling before exiting the room after handing Isabela back to Santana.

Santana doesn't say anything right away and rubs Isabela's back, she tries to ignore the look that Charlie is giving her but fails after a moment. "We _are_ divorced. You made that very clear during my pregnancy."

"I thought what made it clear was you handing me divorce papers," Charlie snips at Santana.

"I did that for a reason you were _having_ an affair—"

"Dani is gone and I never—"

"It doesn't matter Charlie. You didn't listen to me, you waited until it was too late—and you nearly missed the birth of _our_ daughter, all because of _her_. Because you would rather listen to the advice of your secretary rather than me." Santana said cutting her off. They were keeping their voices down. Charlie's temper flared at this but she wasn't done. "You basically forced yourself into _my_ home, you're taking up space—"

"She's _my_ daughter and you don't trust me to take care of her. You think I want to sleep on your couch all the time?" Charlie hisses. "You think _I liked_ sleeping on the couch the first time around, being kicked from my bed—"

"I never once—" Santana frowns.

"You did, every single time you flinched when I touched you or I got to close. Like I had done something to you like I was abusing you or something. What was I supposed to do?" Charlie exhales. Santana wasn't even trying to work with her. She knew she wouldn't and it was driving her crazy she wanted the full parenting experience. She _wanted_ to be woken up because Isabela needed _her_. "You want me gone Santana? Then figure out a schedule, a proper schedule. If you want to inspect the apartment to make sure it's up to _your_ impossible standards then fine."

Santana frowned, "And how are you going to _feed her_?"

Charlie glanced at Santana's breasts for a moment, "Well, they make these glorious machines that pump the milk out of your breasts—"

"Absolutely not." Santana said cutting her off. Her breasts hurt more than enough she wasn't going to put them through any more torture.

"Then formula Santana. I'll feed her formula—"

"You aren't feeding her formula Charlie there are plenty of studies that show—"

"I know the studies—I can read them." Charlie snaps at Santana and she frowns when Isabela hiccups and her face scrunches up, about to cry. Charlie softens immediately and moves to her daughter and leans in. "I'm sorry, I won't raise my voice again." Charlie says attempting to soothe Isabela before she starts screaming again.

Santana rocks her gently, this was _exactly_ what she didn't want to deal with. It wasn't a healthy environment, Charlie was going to need to leave. They needed to think of Isabela, and they were arguing over everything. The door opened and both of them turned to the tall blonde entered the room.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Pierce," Brittany said with a smile, "And that must be Isabela," Brittany said ignoring the anger that was in the room. She motioned for Santana to put Isabela down on the table so she could check her. She paused when Santana didn't move. "Um if you could just put her down? I promise I'll be _super_ careful."

Charlie Fabray turned to Santana and paused for a moment, she knew that look and she felt—jealousy course through her. " _Santana_."

Santana blinked and turned to her ex-wife, it had been a _very_ long time, and it wasn't her fault for immediately going there. She had a thing for blonde women, taller blonde women and Dr. Pierce had some height on Charlie. She gave Charlie a look before placing Isabela on the table watching as she fussed. Charlie had told her that she didn't care. "She likes to be held—I'm Santana by the way." Santana said extending one of her hands.

"Dr. Pierce," Brittany repeated again shaking Santana's hand.

Charlie watched as Santana tucked her hair behind her ear and the looked at Dr. Pierce again and then back at Santana and she twitched. There was a deep part of her that wanted to march over there and separate the two of them and then drag Santana and _their_ child off but she imagine that Santana would _not_ be pleased and there would be plenty of yelling and screaming. "Charlie," she said speaking up. Dr. Pierce nodded at her and Charlie crossed her arms over her chest. They were going to find a better pediatrician, she didn't care if Dr. Pierce seemed competent. A male one, they were going to find a male pediatrician who was an old man and Santana wouldn't flirt with in front of her.

"How is she sleeping?" Brittany asked as she went through Isabela's reflexes, making sure that she was showing them all. There didn't seem to be anything wrong.

Santana glanced at Isabela who seemed to have taken to Dr. Pierce immediately, "She sleeps a lot not really during the night though, she seems to be nocturnal." Santana said and laughed with Dr. Pierce at this.

"How are you sleeping? It's important for new mothers to get a decent amount of sleep."

Santana nodded, "Well, I mean it's not as good as it was before—but Charlie is generally up and taking care of her at night before I can get up," Santana said.

"That's good—now how are you feeding her? Breastfeeding or formula?"

"Breastfeeding," Santana said immediately. "She doesn't have any issues latching on, in fact she's always hungry—I feed her about 8 to 12 time a day sometimes. I mean roughly every two hours."

"That's good it's easier for a newborn to digest breast milk rather than formula, which means that her digestive system is doing alright. Now let's talk about diapers," Brittany said focusing mostly on Santana and Isabela.

Charlie grumbled mostly to herself and kept quiet her irritation building, she waited until Dr. Pierce finally turned to her as if noticing her existence for the first time and asked her if she had any questions. "No." She said curtly as she picked up the diaper bag and pulled out a new outfit for Isabela and moved to dress her. She ignored the look from Santana who immediately began to pepper the doctor with questions as she dressed Isabela and picked her up. "Are we done here?" Charlie asks petulantly, wanting to leave.

Brittany looked at her and watched as Santana looked irritated at her, "Not quite, I wanted to talk to you _both_ about your divorce. I know divorce is difficult on the two of you, but it is even more difficult for an infant. Children aren't like ducks they don't imprint, but they do form emotional attachments to their primary care giver and they need stability."

Santana nodded it was what she had been telling Charlie for the past two weeks, every time she pressed for a regular schedule. "We are giving her a stable environment, she goes to sleep in the same bedroom, the same bed."

"Stability and consistency are good, how often do you see your daughter?" Brittany asks turning to Charlie.

"Every day," Charlie answers truthfully.

Brittany smiles, this was good. "And how often do you two argue in front of her?" she asks and this time she is met with both parents not meeting her eyes. "I know that the reason you two got divorced must be still plaguing you, but you can't argue in front of her, she can feel the tension. She probably won't remember it, but how you two act towards each other will be how she views relationships, and as she gets older she'll start imitating and mimicking your behavior and if it continues she might start internalizing and thinking it's _her_ fault."

Charlie frowned and rubbed Isabela's back, "So what do we do?"

Brittany hummed, "I'm not saying that you two need to get back together, but you need to put this _anger_ aside and focus on Isabela's well-being. Have you two tried counselling? Or simply communicating? You two need to be in a good place. I suggest taking a time out when she's asleep and talking about things, and coming to compromises at the very least." Brittany turned to Charlie, "Breastfeeding is important, and she's not going to feel comfortable with letting Isabela out of her sight, and you need to understand that bonding is important for Santana and Isabela." Brittany turned to Santana, "But just like you need to understand that she needs to have that time to bond with Isabela. You both need to bond with her, and more importantly once you get the visitation rights sorted, you need to keep with the consistency. Pre-school years is when the non-custodial parent is more likely to fall out of touch with their child. It's just a word of advice." Brittany said with a smile as she reached forward and rubbed Isabela's chubby cheeks.

"We'll work on it," Santana said and looks at Charlie who nods. They needed to get their shit sorted because, if Charlie disappeared on Isabela, she'd never forgive her.

Brittany smiles, quite pleased with herself, and watches as Charlie and Santana began to leave the office, Brittany picks it up when Charlie stops and hands it to her. "A word of advice," she says quietly so only Charlie can hear her. "You should probably tell her that you still love her, that you need her—because if you don't make a move soon someone else is going to sweep that up."

Charlie pauses for a long moment and meets Brittany's eyes, her jealousy flaring up immediately at the perceived threat, and her own insecurities flaring up immediately. "Is that a threat?"

"Of course it isn't. Just an observation." It was unethical for her to date the parents of her patients. She smiles at Charlie and gently fixes Isabela's hat onto her head and then walks off leaving Charlie standing there.

Charlie looks at Isabela and her daughter begins to gurgle at her, Charlie stares at Isabela. "Alright already, I'll talk to your mom, sheesh." Charlie says grumbling. Isabela continues to gurgle and Charlie grumbles her daughter was going to be opinionated and probably bossy just like her mother was.


	18. Chapter 18

Santana gently ran her hand along her daughter's head touching her gently, she had _finally_ managed to get her to sleep, it had been a busy day for her, a doctor's appointment, and in a few weeks she'd start getting her first shots. It was hard to believe she was only two weeks old. Santana ran a hand through her hair before slowly and quietly easing out of her room. She walked a few steps and noticed her ex-wife passed out on her couch in a rather uncomfortable looking position. Santana sighed and rubbed her arm studying Charlie for a moment before moving to wake her up. She gently nudged Charlie for a moment but it was like her ex-wife was dead to the world. There had always been a surefire way to wake her up, well there were several. But she wasn't going to make bacon or encourage Charlie to think about her sexually either. She looked around before gently tugging Charlie up into a seated position. She smiled when Charlie stirred a bit, "Come on, you can sleep on the opposite side of the bed, since you're still being stubborn." Charlie nodded and allowed her to help her up. Charlie leans against her and Santana helps her to her bedroom pausing for a moment. Charlie had a habit of stripping down naked in the middle of the night. "You've got to promise to keep your clothes on." Santana said shaking Charlie a bit.

"Kay," Charlie mumbled still half asleep. She rubs her eyes as they shuffle into Santana's bedroom, "Santana?" Charlie slurred, "Lied—I lied. Know you hate me."

Santana stiffens for a moment. She's unsure what Charlie is talking about. She doesn't hate her, she could never hate her, as infuriating as Charlie was at times. She puts that away for now, Charlie can barely stand and she's considerably more curious with the idea that Charlie had lied to her. "Lied about what?" Santana asks gently. She immediately regrets asking the question because there could be a whole host of things that she doesn't want to know. Maybe Charlie had lied about her relationship with Dani or—Santana stops as Charlie yawns and slumps face first into her bed. Santana watches as Charlie somehow crawls forward and latches onto one of her pillows pulling it to her chest, before she started the descent back into unconsciousness. Santana was about to let it go when she noticed Charlie's hands moving towards her pajama pants and she immediately lunges forward smacking her hands away. "I said no getting naked!" Santana admonished. She waits but it seems to have worked and Santana watches as Charlie mumbles something about being too hot and she decides to try again. She needs to know. She _wants_ to know. "Charlie—what did you lie about?" she asks.

Charlie doesn't answer right away as she clutches the pillow like it's her entire world. It smells like her, like her Santana. "Lied about, not caring. Do care. Mine."

The words are a disjointed mess but she gets the gist of it and she takes a step back. She's confused for a moment a long moment until she realizes what Charlie is talking about and she swallows. She's not quite sure how to proceed, but it's obvious they aren't having the talk tonight. Charlie was so out of it, and she did feel slightly guilty for pulling that information out of her. But it wasn't like Charlie was going to remember this in the morning. She waits until she sees Charlie's breathing even before turning to leave. To check on Isabela to make sure she hadn't woken up, even though she knows that her daughter would start screaming for attention. She bites her lip and pokes her head into the room, even though she has a baby monitor she's almost obsessive in checking, but her daughter is sprawled out on her back sleeping soundly. Santana watched her daughter for a moment before turning back and heading back to the room next door. She bit her lip, she hadn't really thought this through but she takes her side of the bed as far away from Charlie as she could go.

Except she can't sleep, she's torn between Charlie's rhythmic breathing and listening to the baby monitor, sleep is _rare._ It's like a precious commodity right now with Isabela enjoying waking them up at three am in the morning. Santana sighs and looks over at her ex-wife. She's gotten used to sleeping on her own, having her own space and now Charlie's invading it even though she's the one that brought her into the room. It's just for tonight.

Santana swallows once again, and turns laying on her side, playing Charlie's words again in her head. How could Charlie assume that she hated her? She had spent most of the pregnancy reaching out to her wanting her to just be there. Maybe it was the hormones, because nothing had been fixed. If anything it had gotten progressively worse now that Isabela was born. Santana sighed not quite sure how to fix it. She closed her eyes trying to get a few moments before Isabela began to fuss. It was then she felt Charlie shift on the bed and she groaned about to remind her that she needed to keep her pants on when she felt Charlie wrap an arm around her waist. Santana blinked and tilted a bit so she could look at Charlie for a moment, but she really was asleep. She had forgotten to take into account Charlie was a cuddler in her sleep, and shook her head before resting her head down on the pillow.

It didn't take her long to fall asleep shifting her body closer to the warm body of her ex-wife.

* * *

"Oh god Isabela, what did you eat!" Charlie grumbles as she holds the soiled diaper up and opens the trash can with her foot and drops it in. Her daughter gurgles and kicks and Charlie rolls her eyes as she begins to clean her and uses a bit of baby powder before putting the diaper on despite Isabela's squirming. With a bit of skill from the two week practice Charlie puts her in a new onesie and picks her up. Charlie smiles and kisses her forehead, "Come on let's go wake your mom up so she can feed you." Charlie said and Isabela squeals at this. Charlie smiles, "Yes I know, you love your mommy don't you?" Charlie says she had woken up with her body pressing against Santana's and without pants. Isabela gurgles and grunts and Charlie rubs her back. "Yes, Isabela I love her too and I want to be a family again but I don't know how to fix it. I think your mom thinks I'm an i-d-i-o-t." Charlie says spelling the word out. "I'll tell you what though maybe I am, but I love you and your mommy more than anything in the world, and I promise I'll always be there for you." Charlie says as she enters the bedroom. She studies Santana's sleeping form for a moment and looks at Isabela, "And I'll try and be there for your mom as well," Charlie murmurs and moves to Santana. She makes sure that she has a good hold on Isabela before she shakes Santana awake.

"Hmm?" Santana asks trying to rub the sleep from her eyes and flicks her eyes to Charlie who is holding her daughter and pauses for a second because she hadn't heard anything on the baby monitor. "Charlie? When did you wake up?"

"After her three am feeding she woke up around dawn and we played for a bit, and I changed her diaper. But I think it's time for her breakfast, so here we are—I would have let you sleep longer but I think that she's hungry and I didn't want her to get fussy. You know how she gets when she's hungry," Charlie said as she handed her daughter over to Santana. She had the decency to look away when Santana exposed her breast to feed Isabela.

Santana looked up at Charlie, when Isabela latched on. They needed to have a conversation sooner than later. "Do you remember last night?" she asked as Charlie moved to get a towel in preparation to burp her. After a few ruined shirts, Charlie had learned to put the towel on her shoulder so she wouldn't get spit up down the back of her shirt.

Charlie paused, "I didn't mean to take off my pants, it just happens when it gets to hot!" she said immediately going on the defensive.

Santana blinked for a second and snorted, shaking her head slightly. They were going to need to deal with that later. But she wanted to keep on point, "You told me you lied to me last night."

Charlie pauses for a moment wondering what the hell Santana was talking about and trying to find out where she lied, "I haven't lied to you!"

Santana's lips quirk upward for a moment and Charlie, "Last night you said that you cared if I dated anyone else and that I was yours." Santana said turning to look at Isabela who was just happily nursing away ignoring the two of them. She sees the flush on Charlie's cheeks.

"Isabela thinks we should be a family right Isabela." Charlie said but her daughter is quiet and quite possibly ignoring her as she continues to feed. Charlie looks at Santana who gives her a look, so maybe it wasn't the best idea to use their daughter. "Okay _I_ think we should be a family again."

Santana looked at her ex-wife carefully, there was a reason why they were divorced. There were several reasons why they were divorced and Isabela's presence in their lives was not a reason not a good reason to start things again. "We fight all the time Charlie, and you heard the doctor yesterday. We don't want to raise her in that toxic environment—which we're doing. I never wanted that for her, I wanted her to be raised surrounded by love and respect and trust."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, "I never wanted to divorce. I wanted to work it out then. You're the one that wanted to divorce. So I gave it to you, just like I've given you everything you wanted for the better part of fifteen years. What I want is to be a family with you, and fix this. You think I like the fact that you're flirting with other women in front of me?"

"Because I enjoyed your emotional affair with Dani?" Santana shot back getting infuriated at this.

Charlie frowns at this, "I never once thought about—sleeping with her. I never once thought about _being_ with her, she was there and she was a friend when my _best_ friend was currently mad at me. And I couldn't figure out _why_. So we're clear about who I'm talking about it's you. It's _you_. What am I supposed to do, you wouldn't tell me what was wrong, and I couldn't figure it out. Quinn would start going on about how perfect her bloody relationship was. Frannie doesn't _do_ relationships. Puck is Puck. My mom is divorced and is currently trying out the dating pool again. And I was stuck trying to figure out what I did and trying to make up for it and you never gave me the chance. You shut me out and I'm terrible at these things and yes Dani offered some advice and I didn't think anything of it."

"I didn't _start this_ —" Santana begins when Isabela pulls away and begins to fuss immediately, and she knew her daughter was feeling the rising tension in the room. Santana moved her expertly and began to pat and rub her back trying to get her to calm down and burp. It doesn't take long and she feels the warm spit up go down her back and she sighs, she'd forgotten the towel.

"Maybe you didn't but it wasn't like you were actively trying either." Charlie said as she took Isabela who looked like she was getting fussy. Charlie sighed, she was so tired of being cooped up and she was tired of arguing, they weren't getting better.

Santana was quiet for a moment, "I don't hate you Charlie. Whatever you think I don't hate you but—we aren't good for each other—"

"We were _happily_ married for _seven_ years. We had a rough year and you bolted, unless you were unhappy—the entire time and just got around to telling me." Charlie interrupts. "We weren't broken back then we were happy

"Ignoring the seven years we spent happily married," Charlie interrupts. "Or am I simply imagining things and you were unhappy during those times and I just never noticed."

Santana is quiet for a moment, those were the years that she wanted to have again. "We had seven good years but that doesn't mean that things were going to be magically fixed now Charlie. I don't _trust_ you anymore, I don't trust you to be there—you weren't there for me and I know you love Isabela but a part of me wonders if something comes up, if you'll walk out of her life."

"I _didn't_ walk out of your life. You came into my office and handed me divorce paper, I was still coming home every night, maybe a bit later because I didn't want to fight with you but I came home _every night_ , and hoped to god you could just tell me what's wrong. You never did." Charlie says, "You didn't tell me until _after_ we were divorced, you hid your pregnancy from me, you _lied to me_. And then you wanted me to just smile and be happy and comfort you and put away my hurt so I could be there for you. I want to be here for Isabela _and_ you. I know that I have some fault for our relationship getting as bad to begin with. But so did you. So what I want—what I really want is for the three of us to be a family." Charlie sighs when her daughter begins to fuss.

Santana finally stands up and moves to take Isabela, it's like a game of hot potato with them, each of them handing her off when she got to fussy, which seemed to be all the time when they fought. Which was part of the problem. "My first priority right now Charlie is Isabela, and it should be that way for you. We don't have time, let alone the energy to fix everything that went wrong, don't even know where to begin. Wiping the slate clean doesn't _do_ anything because it's still there. All that hurt and resentment. So why don't we just focus on the person that matters right now, and make sure that Isabela knows that both her parent's love her so very much." Santana said cooing at Isabela who seemed to calm down after a moment. She smiles at Isabela who suddenly has a very concentrated look on her face and is making grunting noises. It takes Santana a moment before the smell hits her, and she pulls her face away. "Isabela!" Her daughter makes a pleased squealing noise and Santana glances at Charlie who is covering her nose.

"Your turn! I took the last one, and my eyes have just finished watering." Charlie says immediately scrambling backwards.


	19. Chapter 19

Charlie stretched as she woke up on the inflatable mattress that she had bought for herself. She could hear Isabela's laughter and she groaned standing up and turning to the kitchen to walk in and get some coffee. Charlie stopped and looked at Isabela whose entire face and mouth and upper body was covered in what looked to be pureed bananas. Isabela was banging her hands against the high chair giggling and laughing as she played with her food. She bit her lip and looked at Santana who had pureed banana in her hair and tried not to laugh at the irritation on Santana's face.

"How come she doesn't decide to play with her food when _you_ try and feed her?" Santana says looking at Charlie suspiciously. Her daughter and her ex were conspiring against her. It was the only thing that made sense. Isabela seemed to be the perfect little girl for Charlie.

"You've got to make the airplane noises," Charlie said taking the spoon from Santana and getting some of what was left of the banana puree, and made the sound of an airplane taking off. She dodged Isabela's hands as her daughter reached out and grabbed for it. Isabela laughed as Charlie kept a steady pace before opening her mouth, watching as Isabela copied her and promptly pushed the small spoon into her mouth. Isabela immediately blew out some of the banana puree. And Charlie rolled her eyes. "Come on Bela, you're making me look bad in front of your mom." She was rewarded with Isabela spitting out even more food letting it hit her bib.

Santana raised a brow and looked at Charlie and then at her daughter. Five months. They had been doing this for five months and it was like she'd blink and miss how big her daughter had gotten, or how fast the time had passed. She had needed to go back to work weeks ago as did Charlie. They had fought for days over their options. Charlie had wanted to take Isabela into the office and arrange a space for her daughter to spend time with her. She had vetoed that idea instantaneously. Which had led to a massive argument of course, it wasn't that she didn't trust her ex, it was just that she was worried that Isabela would love Charlie more.

Which had led to the second option that Charlie had presented. Hiring a nanny. She had also vetoed that idea, she didn't even know how Charlie could suggest it. Charlie had reported about some of the terrible things that nanny's had done to their charges. Yes she knew she was being paranoid but Isabela was her daughter and she wasn't going to expose her to anything. She wasn't going to entrust a _stranger_ to watch her child. Which of course had led to the option of one of their parents watching their daughter. Charlie had immediately vetoed her abuela, much to her annoyance. Even if she did agree with Charlie's reasons, her grandmother was incredibly old fashioned and she didn't want her daughter picking up any of the ideas. Unfortunately that had left one other option and that was Judy.

Santana liked Charlie's mother well enough but even Charlie admitted that her mother could be flaky some times. But she had raised three daughters as Charlie had pointed out mostly by herself. Plus according to Quinn she had been a godsend with Beth. Judy had _wanted_ to do it, she had _wanted_ to take care of Isabela, who loved her grandmother very much. But she was a worrier, she knew she was a worrier which was why she had insisted that Judy have at the very least a basic first-aid course and knew how to take care of her daughter if anything happened. Santana snorted as Charlie got a face full of banana mush as Isabela smacked Charlie in the face. "I need to go take another shower Charlie. Can you give her a bath before I drop her off at your mothers?"

Charlie looked at Isabela who was babbling away, like she was having a conversation. "Yes Bela, it's bath time. Just wait until you're old enough to have bubble baths! We'll get you a ducky and you'll get a squirt gun and we'll have a grand old time. But first we've got to get you squeaky clean for your mommy." Charlie said.

Santana let out a relieved sigh and got up to wash her hair again. Charlie was still frustrated with her but Isabela was her first child and she was overprotective of her. She moved quickly usually mornings were her one on one time with Isabela, but she was so swamped with work. She still hadn't managed to catch up from her maternity leave and she was busting her ass, while calling Judy every spare moment she had so she could hear Isabela babble on the phone. Leaving was hard, it tugged on her heart strings. But having Charlie around to help her with things was nice. Even if they argued over everything from what diapers to buy Isabela, to when the proper time to feed her solids was. Charlie had finally won the argument about getting a breast pump.

Santana moved to the bathroom stripping out of her clothes, she was running late as it was and she hopped into the shower again and quickly washed out her hair. She couldn't afford the fancy hair care products that had been a luxury before with how often she was in and out of the shower. Isabela didn't know the meaning of being clean. If it wasn't one thing it was another with her daughter. But she hurried up and got in and out of the bathroom quickly before putting on her outfit for the day. She was out the bedroom door in record time just in time to see Charlie blowing raspberry's on Isabela's stomach causing her to laugh and clap in her own way. "Charlie," Santana said in a tired tone causing Charlie to look up.

"Sorry, sorry. I got her clean in record time today though. Thought we had a few moments to play." Charlie said as she finished buttoning up her daughter's clothes for the day and slipping her pacifier into her mouth before working on her shoes. She managed to get everything done as Santana got her change bag with the extra bottles for her. Charlie stopped and kissed Isabela on the cheek and glanced at Santana who was watching this and every day she had the internal debate of whether she should kiss Santana on the forehead. Every day since Santana had started going back to work, she hadn't and today was no different. Santana was quick to remind her that they weren't married and she wanted to get a few more minutes of sleep before she headed to her office where her new secretary would be waiting. She had hired a male assistant this time.

He got the job done and she was keeping herself on the professional line. She was going to show Santana that she could be trusted, but nothing had really changed between them and it bothered her to no end. But she shrugged and took the small victories when she could. There wasn't nearly as much tension between them as there once was, she took it as a win. Charlie stretched and poured herself a cup of coffee before taking a seat and sipping it. She wondered if she could finally bring up moving into the apartment that she had been paying rent on for four months even though she wasn't using it. It had the space for her to not sleep on the floor in the living room every night.

* * *

Noah Puckerman was a man on a mission, it had been over a year since Charlie had been laid and she wasn't listening to him about her current status as Santana's whipping girl. She was stuck and in his personal opinion no one should have to go more than a year without sex. Plus it was the anniversary of Charlie's divorce not that she was thinking about it, she was far too busy with Isabela and being Santana's bitch to notice. But he noticed because he was a decent friend and it stopped now. Charlie needed to break the spell that Santana had on her, or Santana needed to at the very least give his best friend a bit of love.

Santana stopped what she was working on and looked at the brown paper bag filled with her favorite fries from the food truck that she occasionally stopped by whenever she had time. They were her favorite, greasy with just the right amount of salt and seasoning and she reached for the bag. "What do you want Puck?" Santana asked before she took the bag from her desk. "What are you even doing here?"

Puck took a seat in front of Santana, showing up uninvited was a terrible idea he knew how busy she was, which was why he had brought a peace offering. He doubted she was going to be pleased about what he was going to say but he needed to gauge how Santana would react before he decided to open his little black book for Charlie. "It's been a year."

Santana frowned as she opened the bag of fries and took one biting into it. "A year?" she asks him the taste of the deep fried goodness makes her nearly moan in pleasure.

Puck nods and looks at all the paperwork. A part of him wonders Santana could have forgotten but with Isabela around, he understood somewhat. "Since you and Charlie got divorced," he said bluntly watching as Santana's body tenses. He sees something flicker through her eyes but he can't place it.

Santana looks at the fries in front of her and then at Puck and then pushes them towards him. She could already tell where this was going and she wasn't going to take his bribe. "I'm not going to _sleep_ with you Puck."

Puck snorts, he didn't want to sleep with her. Well that was a lie he _always_ wanted to sleep with a girl, but Charlie would kill him or worse and he wasn't going to betray his friend like that. As it stood he knew that Santana _tolerated_ his existence more than anything in her life. "I'm not here for _you_ Santana. I want you to know that I'm here for Charlie. It's been a year and I'm her friend."

Santana nods she should have known, "I don't understand why you're here and not bothering Charlie. If you want to get strippers get strippers." Santana said with a shrug. "We're divorced." And Charlie wasn't even a stripper person. "So you know, Charlie's not going to sleep with you either."

Puck rolled his eyes at this, "I came to find out if you have any plans of getting back together and working on your relationship with her?" Puck asked just getting straight to the point causing Santana to pause and look at him. "She's my _friend_ —and I need to know if I need to make sure that I get Charlie laid or not—" Puck holds up his hands and looks at Santana. "I _know_ you're divorced. Just like I know that you know that she didn't cheat on you." Santana looks ready to protest and Puck is too tired for it. "Santana. Charlie is not me. She will never be me—and it's not like I hid the fact that I was sleeping around you just accepted it. I was very open, that I loved _all_ women. You still dated me for a year and a half before you dumped me permanently."

"I don't see what this has to do with Charlie and myself." Santana said tersely.

"Are you finished with Charlie, like are you done permanently or is this going to be like high school all over again where you two are so obviously in love with each other but never do anything about it. Because if you're _finished_ with her then you need to kick her out of your apartment and let her move on, and I'll help with that. Just like if you want my help in finding another partner I'll totally help with that. I know plenty of women. But if you're not then you two need to have sex or something. Like seriously screw each other's brains out and then start talking."

Santana blinked at Puck, "Did Charlie put you up to this?"

"Charlie? Every word out of her mouth is Isabela this and Isabela that and she sends me like fifty photos a day." Puck said with a shake of his head it was annoying as hell. But Charlie was so damn proud of Isabela. "Fifty photos a day Santana." He repeats.

Santana rolls her eyes but smiles and looks at the photo of Isabela and Charlie that she has on her desk. "Isabela comes first," she said it was the very line that they used with each other.

"Isabela is a baby who sees you both as the people that feed her and change her diapers, I'm sure you two can carve out an hour a day where you two have _normal_ adult conversation and do very adult things to each other. Quietly of course. She's your kid she doesn't need to be hearing that."

Santana rolls her eyes, "Sex doesn't fix everything Puck."

"Well not talking about it doesn't either. You're both idiots, and maybe Charlie spent a bit too much time in the office and neglected you to begin with. Maybe she was so focused on bringing in that money so you wouldn't have to keep supporting her, that didn't mean for one second that she stopped loving you. She's not me, and you know that. If you seriously thought that Charlie had cheated on you then you probably would have attempted to kill her like you did me. Several times. You talk about that shit and give it time to get better. Have sex and then when you _both_ can't move and run away, you do what you're supposed to do. Which is talk. And you'll both be in a good mood because you know _sex_. "

Santana raised a brow, she was considering it but she looks at Puck suspiciously. "Are you _sure_ that Charlie didn't put you up to this?" Puck laughs and she sighs. "I'll think about it, and I'll get back to you."

Puck nods, and steals her bag of French fries and starts to eat them. "Good, now about making Isabela my godchild. Charlie laughed in my face and you two haven't decided—" He was met with Santana's laughter and he scowled. He would make a great godfather.

* * *


	20. Chapter 20

Isabela had been cranky for the past few days and Charlie had decided rather abruptly, to Frannie's annoyance, to take the day off so she could spend some time with her child. She had been running a low-grade fever and Santana hadn't been enthusiastic to leave her alone, except she had no more vacation days left and she needed to go to work. But she had called every twenty minutes to make sure that nothing was wrong. And nothing was wrong, well it hadn't been in till Isabela had woken up crying.

Charlie had grown accustomed to recognizing her daughter's cries. She knew when Isabela was hungry, she knew when she was irritated, she knew when she was insanely tired and really just wanted to go to sleep but couldn't. Isabela's choice was generally the pay attention to me cries, because her daughter loved attention. It really didn't matter who it was. But this was new, she had just been watching the news when she heard Isabela's crying from the baby monitor. It wasn't the same loud ones that she was used to hearing, it was weak and pitiful and even through the monitor she could hear a small wheeze at the end. Charlie practically tripped over herself to get to her daughter, moving faster than she had ever moved before. "Oh Bela," Charlie said when she saw her daughter. Isabela's hazel eyes met hers and she was rubbing her little hands against her nose where there was a generous amount of snot coming out of it. The look that she gave her was absolutely heartbreaking and Charlie immediately picked her up. She was hot to touch and Charlie did what most parents would do when faced with an impossible situation she panicked.

She had thought she'd been prepared, she'd read the books but Bela was crying and she didn't quite know what to do. No wonder Santana didn't quite trust her with all these situations, she had half a mind to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital but she took a breath and gently wiped the snot on Isabela's face away and moved to her phone as she began to rock her baby girl. She bit her lip, there were a list of people who she could call. Her mother was at the very top of that list. "Your mom's going to be so pissed at me Bela," Charlie said biting her lip as she dialed Santana. "It's going to be okay Bela." Charlie said looking at her daughter. "I promise it's going to be okay, your mommy will know what to do." She said as soothingly as she could. This did not seem to soothe her daughter who cried harder.

"Charlie?" Santana said and frowned when she heard the crying from her daughter on the phone. "She's sick isn't she?"

Charlie nods and bites her lip as she tries to hold a very fussy Isabela. "I think she's wheezing and she feels really hot and there is snot _everywhere_ Santana. Do you think I should take her to the children's hospital? I think I should, she's running a fever and—"

"Charlie _breathe_ ," Santana ordered immediately because it sounded very much like Charlie was going to start crying along with Isabela and she needs to calm her ex down. "I'm going to call Dr. Pierce's office, to see if she can fit her into the schedule today. Maybe at the end of the day, or now. But I want you to get her cleaned up and take her temperature, maybe a bath to cool her down a bit. Keep her hydrated even if she doesn't want to eat—she might not be hungry just do it a little at a time. We've talked about this and you know what to do." Santana reminded her.

Charlie nodded they had talked about this and it seemed reasonable what Santana was asking her to do but _still_. Her baby girl was hurting and she wanted to make it stop, "Can you come home a bit early today?" Charlie asks. She didn't want to do this alone.

"I'll try, and I'll keep calling to make sure that everything is _okay_." Santana said. "I'm going to go call Dr. Pierce's office now, so go take her temperature and remember to put her in light clothes, but make sure she has some layers so you can take it off—and keep her hydrated Charlie."

Charlie nods because taking a bit of comfort from Santana's words, she'd never call Santana a worry wart ever again. Well she probably would, but she needed to take care of her daughter first. "Alright, I'll text you updates every time I can." She looks at her daughter who is still crying weakly and she sniffles. "I know baby, I know. Don't worry we'll make sure you feel better as soon as possible. I don't like being sick either."

* * *

Santana huffed as she made it into Dr. Pierce's office, she had decided to take her lunch break at the end of the day, moving everything around just so she could finish an hour earlier. It was just in time for her daughter's appointment. She hadn't been able to work, as Charlie had updated every ten minutes on everything that went on. But now she could see her baby girl by herself and she walked into the pediatrician's office where Charlie was holding a sleeping Isabela trying to wipe the copious amounts of snot from her daughter's snot. "You got her to sleep?"

"I think she cried herself to sleep. She didn't really eat much of the bottle, and kept spitting it out," Charlie said as she handed Isabela to Santana who immediately cuddled her daughter. "She's still warm. But I put her in layers like you said. And I've been checking the thermometer every hour." Charlie informs Santana. "It's gone down a degree or to—I think it maybe an ear infection though. She really didn't like it when I put the thermometer in her left ear to check the temperature."

Santana frowned and hushed Isabela rocking her as she began to fuss, "Mommy's here Bela," she hummed as she looked around, the waiting area was completely devoid of children but it had been a bit of an emergency and she knew that she had begged for her daughter to be able to see a doctor. She didn't want to take her to the hospital if she didn't _have_ to. Her daughter sneezed and the coughed and then began to cry. No wonder Charlie had been close to tears earlier, this was heart breaking.

Dr. Pierce stretched as she walked out with her last patient and smiled at the Fabray-Lopez couple, who were fussing over Isabela. She grabbed the file from her secretary's desk and she moved to check on Isabela. "You can follow me in," she said and she was practically bum rushed by the two of them into the examination room where they put down a very fussy Isabela, who was still crying weakly. Brittany immediately pulled her stethoscope that was made especially for children after unbuttoning Isabela's shirt and placed it against her chest.

"I think she has an ear infection—in her left ear she didn't like it when I put the thermometer there." Charlie offers and Dr. Pierce nods at her. She is still not a fan of the doctor but right now she's more concerned about her daughter.

"Is she going to be okay?" Santana asked moving to hold Isabela's hand, her daughter gripped her finger tightly and it didn't make her heart feel any better.

"I think so, her lungs are clear and her heart is strong just let me check inside her ears," Brittany said as she got the otoscope out and began to check Isabela's ear. Her right ear was clear but the moment that she put it in the right ear Isabela kicked up a bigger fuss and tried to push it away as Brittany quickly checked. Charlie had been right it was an ear infection. "Your daughter is going to be just fine, I'm going to get you some antibiotics for the ear infection. Hopefully it'll pass soon, but I'm going to schedule a follow up appointment to make sure."

Santana lets out a relieved sigh, but its news and they know what it is now. But her daughter's still going to be in pain. "Is this something we should be worried about—like it won't affect her hearing or anything?"

"Some children are a bit more susceptible to it and when I looked it didn't look like it had ruptured the ear drum which is a good thing. This might be the only time it happens and if it is she'll be fine. However if it continues to happen we'll have to look into it, and we'll talk about treatment options if that's happening. No need to worry about that now."

"Is there anything we can do to prevent another ear infection?" Charlie asks. Keeping her daughter in a germ free bubble was an option she'd look into.

Brittany blinked in the numerous visits, Charlie had never directed a question at her. "Well washing your hands regularly is a good thing. You two don't smoke do you?" Santana shakes her head at this and Brittany nods. "Well children do get sick and there might not be a cause. Is she in daycare?"

"No, she's not. Charlie's mother babysits her and as far as I know she hasn't had any contact with other—" Santana pauses for a moment. _Beth._ She looks over at Charlie and it seems that her ex is having the same thought that she is having. "Well she has a cousin, who's about six now."

"Well, it might be that. I know you want to protect her but children do get sick, as do most people. It's good for them to build up a healthy and robust immune system. But if you want to prevent this, you could talk to your niece and tell her to make sure she washes her hands before she plays with Isabela." Brittany explains as she hands Isabela back to Charlie who kisses her daughter on the forehead. Brittany moves so she can write out a prescription and rips the page off and hands it to Santana. "You're going to need to follow the instructions _exactly_ , even if she seems like she's feeling better she's going to need to take her medication."

"Of course," Santana said looking at Charlie who nods, it's a bit of relief to have a solution to the problem.

"And of course you're going to need to keep her well hydrated and you should keep checking on her through the night until the fever breaks. She's going to be fussy, and even if she doesn't want to eat you need to make sure that you try and give her something," Brittany said calmly to Santana and Charlie. They hung onto every word she said and Brittany couldn't help but notice how close they were standing to each other. It was about the first time that she had seen them together without them arguing over _everything_. Well that was a good sign.

* * *

Putting Isabela down for the night had been tough, she hadn't wanted either of her parents to let her go. Charlie had put her in the baby carrier and had walked around for most of the evening with her, and it had taken the two of them singing lullabies before she had finally closed her eyes and fallen asleep. Santana tugged Charlie out of her room, when she realized that Charlie had every intention of watching Isabela all night. "I set my alarm to check in on her every hour," Santana explains.

Charlie nods and rubs her eyes and flops onto Santana's couch, exhausted. "I don't mind watching her all night. I already called in and told them that I wasn't coming in." Charlie says to Santana.

"I know, but I know you and if you start doing that now, you're going to be one of those parents who watches their kids obsessively." Santana says with a sniff, "And you say that I'm a worry wart."

"You are! You think that hiring a nanny will mean that Isabela might get abused!" Charlie says and Santana rolls her eyes at this. Charlie rubbed her eye as Santana took a seat beside her.

"Says the person who was going to call an ambulance because Isabela was running a fever," Santana teases back. "You report all these bad things and part of my job means that I'm _dealing_ with people who abuse their kids all day. I can't just put her in the hands of a stranger Charlie. I know it's silly but when you see some of the things that I see on a day to day basis it's difficult. You know a mother got her children taken away a few days ago, because they were living in filth. Like feces and cockroaches everywhere. The kid had bites on his body and he had a terrible rash because his mother hadn't changed him in days. And she didn't understand _why_ her child was being taken away." Santana pauses when she feels Charlie pull her into a hug and she closes her eyes relaxing for a moment. "Isabela cries and I just—I want her to stop crying and do whatever it takes to make her smile and laugh again, or feel better and I don't know why or how anyone could ignore their kids or not take care of them. It just doesn't make sense to me."

Charlie was quiet for a long moment and kisses Santana's cheek, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be—I might tease you and I know I worry about every little thing when it comes to Isabela but—you're good with her. I know that you're good with her and I trust you with her I do, I don't think I'd trust anyone else as much as I trust you with Bela." Santana says. "I can see how much you care and I know you'll try your hardest to do right by her. I know it seems like I don't trust you with her—but I do. I honesty do."

Charlie beams at this statement and relaxes a bit, she pulls Santana closer. "I couldn't do this without you Santana. I'd be hopeless, and I don't want to do without you. I wouldn't know what to do if it wasn't for you thinking of like every eventuality and making sure that I'm prepared. The infant care kit was a god send today I didn't have to look for everything." Charlie is quiet for a moment and looks at Santana. "We make a good team don't we?"

Santana is quiet for a moment and then she nods, "We do," she agrees and rests her head against Charlie's shoulder just enjoying being near her. She loathed to admit that Puck had a point. It was a conversation, like most conversations she had with Puck, she had shoved out of her mind. But just sitting here with Charlie felt right it felt like it had before they had divorced. Charlie was present. "I'm—sorry."

Charlie looks at Santana for a moment, "For what?" There was confusion in her voice she didn't know what Santana was apologizing for.

Santana takes a breath, "You were gone—I know you were working and trying to build a career for yourself—but we didn't need all the money in the world Charlie and I knew it was important to you that you weren't just waiting tables all your life, or going to your dad for a job. But you weren't around and when you were—we weren't talking about anything, you were either too tired or to out of it for it to do anything else. It was fine—because I thought once you had it things would settle down again and I was proud of you. I really was—and then Dani came along. I thought she was a man for a moment, and I thought you had a new friend. Hopefully one to replace Puck, who wants to go out and get you laid by the way. Everything that you said was praising Dani, she did this for you and she did that. It wasn't a big deal because I thought she was a guy and you aren't attracted to men." Santana explains. "Finding out Dani was a woman—well it made me feel a bit insecure, you were doing what Dani said—rather than any suggestions that I was making and it felt weird. And you were spending days with her and I got—jealous and then worried. Especially when I met her for the first time and I _knew_ she liked you." Santana exhales. "The way you two talked like you were old friends didn't make it feel right to me. I think it's then I realized that we weren't—what we were, and there were so many cracks in our foundation and I didn't want you to wake up one day and realize that you didn't love me. It was easier to push you away then become Elaine. To have you not care—and then I began to smell her on you. With her cheap perfume and I just couldn't. I found out that I was pregnant and I just—I didn't want you to be with me because of Isabela. I didn't want to raise her in a toxic environment."

Charlie blinks slowly, this wasn't what she was expecting and she turns to Santana her brows furrowing. "Santana—"

"I know you love me Charlie, I know that. I know that you love Isabela—I know. But you get so focused on the big picture, whether it's making money or doing something else that you forget about _us_. I don't want expensive things from you, I don't need a sports car or some fancy penthouse apartment. What I wanted and needed was _you_ being there. Being there to hold me when I had a bad day like you used to. Where we talked about having a family and maybe adopting a kid—you remember all that."

Charlie gently reaches forward and brushes a tear from Santana's cheek it was the perfect storm of events and they hadn't been able to weather it. She didn't know what to say, she should say something she knew that, but this was the first time that they were talking about it and she swallows. "I do—and I still want it. I just—I didn't want to be the person holding us back. I didn't want to wait tables for the rest of my life while we raised our kids and struggled. I wanted you to have the very best of everything. I wanted to be able to afford to buy our kids Christmas presents, without having to depend on you, and help them with the insane costs of going to university without them having to take out student loans, which they'll be paying off for the rest of her life." Charlie frowns ever so slightly, "I'm sorry Santana." It's not enough but she doesn't know what else to say. "I'm so sorry."

Santana sighs and closes her eyes. "Don't—I know that you're sorry. I'm sorry that I shut down instead of just telling you and giving us a chance. I'm sorry," she says and there is silence between them, Charlie doesn't take her arms from around her and Santana finally wonders what next. "What now?" She asks. They were still broken and she didn't know what would happen next. Nor did she want them to force it better because of Isabela.

Charlie was quiet for a moment and she swallows. "Can we try again?" she asks Santana. "Please—I miss you. I miss being able to do this—I miss us Santana. More than anything I miss us, and I want what we had so maybe we can try again because I know I really can't be with anyone else without comparing them to you, and I don't want a poor copy I just want the real you."

Santana swallows and nods and is about to say something when the baby monitor comes to life with Isabela fussing, Charlie makes a face and moves to get up, but she stops her by placing a hand on her knee. "I'll take this one, and I—want that to. But right now let's focus on getting Isabela healthy again."


	21. Chapter 21

It had been over a year. That was the last time that they done the deed. A deed that had given them their darling daughter, who seemed to know when things were getting hot and heavy. Her daughter then proceeded to seem to know _when_ they were getting hot and heavy, and then decided she wanted to be the center of attention. But apart from their daughter's terrible timing. Things had been good—they'd been better. They were working on their relationship. They were _talking_ more. They were touching each other more—they were holding hands. Things seemed right. Oh they still argued over who had the best plans for Isabela but there wasn't that animosity it wasn't filled with anger and spite. More importantly Charlie wasn't spending every last minute at work, and she had introduced her new secretary some new guy named Sam. It hadn't been necessary for Charlie to insist on a male secretary, but he got her home on time nearly every day. Sure she was now bringing some work home with her, but she didn't hole herself away. They talked while she was doing work.

Things were good and maybe she was rushing the sex part—but it had been _forever_ since she had last done it. And they were getting hot and heavy until Isabela decided she need attention. It had reignited a passion under her and she wanted Charlie. She wanted their sex life back as well, she loved the feeling of Charlie underneath her doing everything right to get her off. She loved watching Charlie squirm and flush and get that look of lust on her face and the cute little grunting noises she met. Santana gently ran a hand through her daughter's hair, she'd been teething lately which meant she was all sorts of uncomfortable. But she'd finally managed to put her down and she just hoped that tonight would be a night where they could finally reignite what they had lost. Santana moved making sure that the baby monitor was on before she headed back to the living room where she watched Charlie pulling out her inflatable bed and she bites her lip. "Charlie, what are you doing?"

Charlie looked up at Santana, "Getting ready for—" Santana raises a brow at her and gives her that small smirk that has dick hardening in her boxers. "Oh—oh." A huge grin flashes across Charlie's face as she approaches Santana, pausing for a moment and rubbing her arm. "Are you sure? I mean—we can—" Charlie babbles only to be silenced by a kiss from Santana who grips the front of her shirt. She was sure and Charlie relaxes as Santana pulls away.

"Bedroom. Now." Santana orders playfully and when Charlie turns she can't help but smack her ex-wife's ass causing Charlie to turn to her and grin before scampering off to the bedroom. Santana exhales, that hadn't been hard at all. She takes her time heading to the bedroom and watches as Charlie's pulling off her shirt, and nothing has changed, she's still in shape and her body is still the same, and for a moment it hits her that her body _has_ changed. She hugs her stomach gently, she had stretch marks all over her body. The result of having a child, she had managed to get her shape back but the damage had remained no matter what she did. She didn't have the same body as she did before and there were times when she would poke at her body in the mirror. No amount of those miracles cures that popped up on television had worked much to her general annoyance.

Charlie turned to look at Santana who wasn't in the process of getting naked and she slowed down pausing when she saw the look of conflict on Santana's face. "Santana—"

Santana flushed suddenly embarrassed, "Were you—with someone else when we weren't together?" She needed to know how she was going to stack up. Because if Charlie was thinking she was as perfect as she was before she was highly mistaken.

Charlie shakes her head, "The last person I was with was you—" It seems to be the wrong thing to say and she watches as Santana tightens her hands around her stomach. "Santana?"

Santana flicks her eyes towards Charlie who was approaching her and she bites her lip, "Stretch marks—I have stretch marks and Isabela was a big baby and—" Charlie closes the distance between her and wraps her arms around her.

Charlie kissed Santana gently, and smiles at her. "Santana you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Your stretch marks don't bother me because it's just a sign that we made the most perfect thing in the world together."

Santana flushes for a moment before she blinks and looks at Charlie, "You're still very cheesy," she says with a laugh and kisses Charlie deeply. She relaxes, Charlie had always been a bit cheesy but she had always been honest with her cheese and she slowly pulls her shirt off and watches as Charlie traces her stretch marks gently and then leans down to kiss them, causing her to shiver. She glances down at Charlie who is looking up at her and she can see her hazel eyes filled with something that she can't quite place and she swallows.

Charlie tilts her eyes away and kisses Santana's thigh, she wanted—no she needed to make sure that this was something that she'd take her sweet time with. Maybe it would be a dream, she wasn't going to let this slip out of her fingers again. She turns her face and kisses Santana's thigh slowly after pulling her pajama pants down. She loved this woman with every fiber of her being and she wanted to remind Santana that it didn't matter if they weren't married she was _hers_. She didn't want to share her with anyone else.

Santana watched Charlie for a moment before slowly reaching down and running her hand through Charlie's blond hair. Charlie could—no she had spent hours down there before eating her out, till her jaw had hurt. She enjoyed her taste more than anything, and normally she'd love it but they had a child now. A child who didn't sleep through the night. "Charlie," Santana said gently. She did this thing with her tongue and fingers that she adored. Her hips buck when Charlie trails a finger against her silk underwear. She was sensitive and she was needy and she was unsure whether she should be embarrassed by the moan that escapes her mouth, or the fact that she feels wetness pooling immediately. Her body craves it and it's been craving it for a while.

Charlie doesn't wait it's been too long and she hooks her fingers along the waistband of Santana's underwear and pulls it downward in one motion as she immediately leans forward and flicks Santana's clit, it's quick and she feels Santana's body roll as she responds. Charlie immediately drags her fingers along Santana's pussy collecting the wetness and brings it to her lips and sucks on them, groaning at the taste. It doesn't take her long to slide her fingers into Santana, she pauses for a second and looks at Santana. "Fuck you're still as tight as ever," Charlie groans before wrapping her lips against Santana's clit and wrapping her tongue around it. Santana bucks her hip against her mouth and chin but she doesn't care. She focuses on Santana's clit as she begins to slowly pump her fingers back and forth.

Santana gripped Charlie's hair tightly as her back hits the wall trying to keep herself up, Charlie had been talented with her tongue and her fingers but this felt different, it felt better. Every movement, every flick of her tongue sent miniature shockwaves through her body and she was having a very difficult time standing up straight. " _Fuck_ ," she groans before bringing an arm to her lips to prevent her from saying anything out loud. She doesn't want Isabela's first words to be something she heard while she was getting eaten out by her other mother. She had taken to speaking to speaking Spanish to Isabela, she wasn't going to let her grow up like Charlie who butchered the language and her parents insisted, but still.

Charlie smiled knowingly against Santana, listening as her breathing got labored, her free hand reaching up to brush against Santana's very sensitive nipples. It's enough to hear the muffled groan as she speeds up her fingers and sucking on her clit hungrily. Sometimes when they had sex and it had been a bit of a while it took Santana a bit longer to—she feels Santana's walls clamp down on her fingers and she groans, as Santana's body bucks against her and she feels Santana's hands pull on her hair. Wetness hits her chin and she swallows as much of Santana's wetness as you can. It's practically running down her hand and arm and falling onto the hardwood floor.

Santana nearly collapses onto Charlie's upper body, her legs trembling from the force of an orgasm. She feels Charlie lapping away and she gently swats her. "Charlie." She admonishes feeling her body shudder and Charlie pulls away for a moment licking her lips and her fingers while looking at her. Santana groans a bit her body feeling all sorts of sensitive. "Bed," she says and Charlie gets up and helps her to the bed. Her legs still feel weird but she's still very much horny. Santana glances at Charlie who is wearing her favorite black pair of boxer briefs and she reaches for the waistband, and moves to free Charlie's hardon and she pauses for a second. "Charlie?" she begins and Charlie looks at her. "You know I got myself cleaned up for you and if I have to spend an hour making sure that I'm trimmed and ready for you, then you can do the same for me." Santana says with a roll of her eyes.

Charlie flushes and glances down, she hadn't been having sex with anyone and doing that seemed like a waste of time in the morning. "I didn't know we were going to do this today—" Santana runs a finger along her tip and Charlie lets out a low groan, before pulling her hips away and pushing Santana onto the bed and kissing her deeply. She wasn't going to be a two pump chump and she wanted Santana to remember how good the sex was between them. How explosive and mind numbingly good it felt. Her job right now is to pleasure her wife and she plans to do just that.

* * *

Santana felt Charlie's naked body press against hers, it felt warm from her exertions from earlier, still slightly slick from her sweat that was rapidly drying against her. She grumbled, somehow half the pillows had ended up on the floor and they were sharing the one pillow. She could feel Charlie's breath tickling the back of her neck. When the baby monitor crackles to life and she hears Isabela fussing. "You need to take care of your daughter," Santana said grumbling slightly.

Charlie lets out a small tired laugh, "To far," she answers. She's comfortable and she doesn't want to move she doesn't want to leave. "And what do you mean _my_ daughter? We made her together."

Santana snorts at this, completely exhausted but she manages to turn around so she can face Charlie who meets her eyes and she can see the exhaustion in Charlie's eyes. "Charlie I can barely move. Not after you did the thing with the—" she trails off and she sees the flash of lust in Charlie's eyes, which darken in response and she feels her wonderfully sore pussy clench at the memory. "So as for right now, she's _your_ daughter and she wants you."

Charlie was quiet for a moment, she'd have to put on clothes. Well she could get away with a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. But still that required so much effort and it wasn't something she was looking forward to. "Maybe if we're quiet she'll just go back to sleep." Charlie whispers to Santana who begins to push her out of bed.

"Charlie." Santana says gently pushing and prodding Charlie out of bed. "If that's going to be your attitude you're not going to be _allowed_ back in this bed with me." Santana mock threatens. Truthfully she wants Charlie to hurry up so she can hurry back and they can once again get tangled up in each other. "I mean it Charlie, we'll never do this again."

Charlie finally sits up and grumbles a bit as she reaches for her boxers on the ground and then stumbles out of bed. "Yes we will," she says confidently.

"You think I can't resist you?" Santana asks letting out another yawn. "What makes you think that you were any good anyway?"

"The fact that your legs feel like they're made out of jello," Charlie snipes back and laughs when Santana huffs and blows a strand of hair out of her face. A point for her. Charlie laughs and stumbles out of bed. It's been ages since she's used those muscles, and it feels a bit sore and weird but in the good way and she grabs a shirt slipping it on before she wanders out to go see her daughter. She stumbles into the room next door and watches as Isabela is now busy trying to stuff her foot into her mouth. It's a new favorite thing of hers and Charlie smiles.

Isabela turns to her mother and pulls herself into a seating position and begins to smack her hands against the bed, and begins to babble. She raises her hands up wanting to be picked up and Charlie does as she's told and picks her up.

Charlie sighs and nuzzles her daughter. "I'll have you know that one day I'm going to be able to say no to you and your mommy." She's met with Isabela's laughter and her daughter flailing her arms smacking her in the face. "Fine, maybe I won't." She grumbles. Her daughter was going to be a miniature Santana, she could just tell. She was so doomed.


	22. Chapter 22

Isabela toddled to her parents' bedroom nearly tripping as she pushed the door open. With a bit of movement while sucking on her pacifier she toddled over to her parent's bed and giggled as she smacked her mother in the face laughing as she was pushed back and landed on her diapered rump. "Ma!" she said after pulling out her pacifier and holding her hands up as she looked her mother who was rubbing her face.

Charlie groaned, "Bela! What have I said about hitting me in the face?" Charlie said as she sat up groaning. "You're not supposed to—" Charlie slowly paused as it registered that Isabela was in their bedroom at—she glances at the alarm clock, it was just after four in the morning. Charlie stared at her daughter who grunted as she pushed herself up.

" _Mama_! _Up!"_ Isabela ordered her mother wanting to be carried on the bed.

Charlie stared at Isabela for a very long moment, "Bela—how did you get out of your crib?" Charlie asked her daughter. She didn't expect an answer but she was worried, because it seemed like a long way down for someone as short as Isabela was and she could see Santana having a near panic attack. She was having a near panic attack and it was early in the morning.

" _Up_!" Isabela demanded again and she was finally picked up by her mother and placed on their bed where she crawled to Santana and began to shake her. " _Mommy_! _Up_!"

Charlie blinked for a moment still in a state of shock but pulls Isabela away from Santana and sits her on her lap holding her squirming. "Shush your mommy's sleeping like you're supposed to be doing right now." Charlie says and looks at Santana who was finally stirring and turns over to look at the two of them. "Hey," Charlie says with a smile on her face. "It seems our little Bela had her first jail break."

This seems to wake Santana up as her eyes snap open and she sits up, "What do you mean she had her first jail break?" Santana looks at Isabela who scrambles towards her and launches herself into her arms. "She got out of her crib?" Santana asks and Charlie nods. " _Isabela!"_

Isabela looks at her mother for a moment and then pulls out her pacifier and places a big kiss on her cheek, "Hungry." she says pleased with herself.

Santana blinked at Isabela who seemed to recognize she was in some sort of trouble and then at Charlie who was trying not to laugh. It was such a Charlie thing to do, and she needed to talk to Charlie about imparting some of her bad habits onto her poor innocent daughter. "Isabela," Santana said calmly. "You can't go climbing out of bed it's dangerous." She was rewarded with another kiss and Charlie burst out into laughter. "This is _your_ fault."

"Bela," Charlie says trying to be stern with her daughter. "What do you say for worrying your mommy?"

"Sorry, mommy." Bela says with a huff and then begins to shake Santana once again. " _Hungry_."

Santana groaned, her daughter seemed to assume that she was the one that did the cooking in the house and she looked at Charlie this was probably her fault as well, but she smiled at Isabela. "What do you want to eat?"

"Bacon!" Isabela yelled excitedly.

Charlie nearly rolled out of bed laughing and Santana shot her a withering glare, this was most _definitely_ her fault. Though she had been craving the stuff by the boatload lately, and the last time that had happened she had been pregnant. But that was impossible. She hadn't gone back on the pill. Even though Dr. Pierce had said that there wouldn't be any ill effects to breastfeeding while on the pill she hadn't really wanted to take the chance at all. So Charlie now officially wore condoms when they had sex. Charlie wasn't pleased but she had done it anyway if only so they could continue having sex. She was due on to return on the pill in a few weeks which Charlie was looking forward to. "Alright, alright, I'll make you some bacon. What about some waffles?"

"Waffles!" Isabela yells loudly and jumps on the bed after pulling away from Santana only to be scooped up by Charlie who blows a raspberry on her stomach causing her to laugh and kick.

"Charlie, yes I get it, she's a Fabray but she's eating way to much bacon to be healthy and I have no idea why I'm craving the stuff all the time either." Santana grumbles as she slowly gets up moving to the kitchen where she's followed by Charlie who is carrying her daughter in her arms. "What are we going to do about the crib?"

"I've been eating fruits and healthy!" Charlie reminds her with a laugh as she tickles Isabela who laughs loudly. "Trying to set a good example for Bela remember!" Charlie said with an amused smile. It had been Santana who had been eating bacon non-stop lately. She had gained a bit of weight to but truthfully she had thought it was sexy.

Santana grumbles and glances down, she had put on weight lately and she had picked up a pregnancy test that she hadn't yet used. She couldn't remember the last time she had her period and that was _worrying_ but she had put it off, the thought of having another Isabela and going through another pregnancy alone scared her. They were good—things were good between them. She and Charlie were finally in a healthy stable place and she didn't want to rock the boat. She didn't exactly know what they were, saying that they were dating seemed weird considering that they were married. It was like they were married again. They had moved into a bigger apartment together and they were one big happy family. But her last pregnancy hadn't been a walk in the park and a part of her was worried. She was met with more laughter as Charlie played with Isabela and she smiled. Though—Charlie was good with Isabela and she was present. Sure there were days when she was busy, she had those days but gone were the days where Charlie would storm out to the living room and sleep on the couch. Gone were the days of petty insults and them going back and forth with each other. Santana exhaled she needed to put a bit more faith in Charlie, she needed to have faith that this would be different if she was. She made up her mind to check after breakfast.

* * *

Charlie rubbed Isabela's stomach her daughter was currently sprawled out on their bed sleeping, while sucking her pacifier. Truthfully she could see her in her daughter and it delighted her to no end. It was the little things that Isabela did, how she slept how she tried to worm her way out of trouble with a smile and a kiss. She was going to be a very charming young girl. They were having a bit of trouble breaking her out of the pacifier but she wasn't worried she'd give it up eventually. Maybe they could go to the zoo today as a family. It was fun activity and Isabela would love it. She'd have to check the weather, or maybe they could build forts—

"Charlie?" Santana said her voice coming from the bathroom. There was a hint of panic in her voice and she knew it as she stared at the positive sign. Rock the boat indeed. How the hell did this happen? Charlie had been using condoms. Sure there were days when she had allowed Charlie to go raw but those were her _safe_ _days_.

Charlie glanced at Isabela and then adjusted the pillows a bit so her daughter wouldn't roll off the bed before heading to the bathroom, and popping her head in and smiled at Santana. "What's—" the words died in her throat as she stared at the pregnancy test. "Are you?" Charlie asks turning to Santana. Her voice was quiet her body rooted into the spot she was standing on

Santana is quiet for a moment she still can't believe it, and she tries to remember when her last period was. "It's positive," she says quietly looking at Charlie. When Charlie doesn't say anything right away it bothers her but she powers through her fear. "I'll book an appointment for—" Santana groaned as Charlie pulled her into a bear tight hug.

"WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY!" Charlie said loudly as she picked Santana up swinging her around before putting her down again as if it just clicks that she probably shouldn't do that. She crouches down in front of Santana's belly and pats it gently. "We're having another baby! Isabela's going to be a big sister, I think she'll be good at it. Maybe after we can adopt a kid, I know that's super important to you. But like not now maybe in a few more years?" Charlie says and then grins. "Charlie Junior now?"

Santana snorts at this but relaxes at Charlie's enthusiasm. "Never in a million years."

"Oh come on Santana!" Charlie whines as she follows her wife out of the bathroom. "Charlie Junior is a wonderful name. We can call her CJ."

"No Charlie," Santana says with a shake of her head, before shushing Charlie and nodding towards Isabela. "What are we going to tell her?"

"Maybe we should confirm it before we tell anybody at all?" Charlie suggests. "And if you don't like CJ what are we going to call her."

"Sofia," Santana answered. She had picked her top two baby names and she had just decided that it worked for her. Maybe Charlie could name the next one if her first suggestion wasn't to name it after her.

* * *

Dr. Chin glanced at Santana and Charlie as she worked the ultrasound over Santana's stomach, it was a huge difference between the first time she had met the two of them and now. She wanted to comment but she chose to leave it alone for now, instead focusing on the screen in front of her instead of the couple holding hands.

Charlie squeezed Santana's hand tightly and Santana looked at her, "I'm fine Charlie—really. We're going to need to maybe move Isabela to the bedroom that's a bit farther from us. While we start looking for a bigger place maybe a house in the suburbs? You know where they can grow up? A place big enough for this little one and Isabela—"

"And your third child," Dr. Chin interrupted watching as Santana and Charlie whipped their heads to her. "Congratulations you're having twins!"

The smile faded off Santana's face slowly. Twins? They already had their hands full with _Isabela!_ How were they going to juggle twins! She turned to look at Charlie who had puffed out her chest.

"You hear that Santana—twins! Just like me and Quinn! She's going to be super jealous. Now I can say how strong my little—ow Santana you're squeezing my hand!" Charlie says immediately and loudly and turns to look at Santana.

" _Twins Charlie!_ This is _your fault_!" Santana snaps at Charlie whose smile slowly fades off her face and she tries to pull her hand away. "How are we going to deal with twins? Where are we going to put them? How are we going to—stop smiling and being so damn proud of yourself for putting twins in me!" Charlie's grin doesn't fade. It's a very proud smile that Isabela got sometimes when she had done something she thought she should be proud of. Apparently knocking your wife up was one of them, especially when she wasn't looking to get pregnant. Perhaps she could talk Charlie into getting fixed.

"What about Amelia?" Charlie says. "We can call her Lia for short. So Bela, Sofia and Lia!" Charlie says. They all sort of rhyme.

Santana pauses for a long moment, it was the first time Charlie hadn't immediately jumped to naming their child after her and she looked quite pleased that she had thought it up all on her own. "Okay," she says and Charlie looks at her. "Amelia and Sofia it is."

Charlie grins and brings Santana hand to her lips and kisses it. "It's not going to be like last time Santana. I'm going to be with you every step of the way. Me and Bela, you're not going to be alone. I promise." Charlie says.


	23. Chapter 23

* * *

Santana held Isabela's hand tightly as she walked her daughter through the halls of her brand new school. It was her _first_ day of school and Isabela was rather excited. "You know your ma _really_ wanted to be here with you," Santana said looking at Isabela and smiling at her. They had decided to leave Charlie with Amelia and Sofia outside the school. She had practically needed to pry Isabela out of the bear hug from Charlie and beat her back herself just so she wouldn't be late.

Isabela crinkled her nose at this, "Ma was crying," Isabela reminds her mom who snorts as they reach the classroom. Isabela pauses for a moment a she looks at all the other kids with parents who are trying to take pictures of their kids and she looks up at Santana. "What if—they don't like me?" She asks moving to hide behind Santana's leg.

Santana adjusted her body and bent down so she could be eye to eye with Isabela, "Of course they're going to like you Bela." Her daughter was beautiful the perfect mix of the two of them and she remembered her first day of high school. How nervous she had been. "You're going to have plenty of friends."

"What if I don't?" Isabela whispered.

"You know, I thought I wouldn't make any friends on of my many first days of schools and you know what?" Isabela shakes her head and looks at the other children a worried expression on her face. "I met your aunt Quinn and your Uncle Puck and your aunt Rachel and we became friends. I also met your Ma, that day."

"Really?" Isabela asked and Santana nodded.

"You know if you're nice to people and kind then you'll make plenty of friends and remember. Everyone here is nervous making friends to," Santana reminded her and Isabela smiled. "You'll be fine," Santana says and kisses Isabela on the cheek. Isabela hugs her tightly and Santana hugs her daughter tightly. "I have to take some pictures of you Bela, or your grandparents and your ma are going to be _very_ upset with me."

Isabela puffed out her cheek but nodded as her mother let her go and took out her phone to snap pictures of her as she headed into the classroom. Isabela finally smiled when she was allowed to go inside with all the other kids, but she paused for one moment and ran back and hugged her mom tightly. "You'll come pick me up right?"

Santana nodded, "Of course, your ma and I will be here to pick you up after school, we promise." Santana said and gave Isabela one last kiss before watching her head back inside. She waited until the door was closed before she finally let out the tears that she had managed to keep to herself fall. She wiped her eyes quickly. She wasn't going to give Charlie the satisfaction that she had indeed cried. She couldn't help it her little girl was all grown up and it wouldn't be long now till they were all in school and bringing home boys—or girls and getting into half the shit they got into as teenagers.

"First child?" Santana turned to look at the voice that just spoke and she nodded. "I remember our first I spent all day crying. My name is Tina by the way."

Santana extended her hand, "Santana," she said. "She's just getting so big so fast, it seemed like yesterday I was taking her home from the hospital, or she was saying her first words." She wiped her eyes again.

Tina nodded as they began to file out of the school together. "Well it gets a bit easier, they're all worried about the same thing you know. But I told MJ that he'd make friends just like his brother because they _will_ make friends and everything will be alright. Who knows maybe our kids will be the best of friends." Tina said.

Santana smiles gratefully, "I'd like that—" She's cut off as a small ball of vibrant energy crashes into her legs wrapping small arms around her. The action nearly causes Santana to trip but she catches herself, years of practice and she looks down at Amelia. "Amelia? What are you—?"

"Bela! I wanna play Bela." Amelia demands looking up at her mother. She looks absolutely devastated that Bela isn't there with her. Santana immediately scoops her up and she begins to rub her eyes about to cry.

"Amelia!" Charlie said as she rounded the corner carrying Sofia, gasping for air. She had no idea where Amelia got her endless energy from. Or her insane speed was the bane of her existence. "Oh thank god," Charlie said when she sees Amelia being held by Santana. "I told you that we should have invested in that baby leash for her," Charlie says still struggling for breath. She was getting old.

"You have twins to?" Tina asked looking at Amelia who was practically trying to climb out of Santana's arms so she could continue on her search for Isabela.

Santana laughed at this, "Yes, three of them. Sofia and Amelia. They both adore Isabela," Santana said glancing over at Sofia who was still clinging to Charlie like her life depended on it. Sofia was Charlie's little girl. Charlie loved all of them equally, but Sofia was her little princess, because out of all her children it seemed that Sofia clung to her the most. Santana placed Amelia back on the ground and was about to take her hand when she took off again.

"Santana! You're not supposed to let her go," Charlie said handing her Sofia who tried to grab on tightly. "Sofia, darling, I need to go catch your sister before she hurts herself. I'll be right back I promise." Charlie said kissing Sofia on the forehead and taking off after Amelia. That did it they were going to get one of those toddler leashes for her. She didn't care if they got weird looks. She was _old_.

Tina looked at Santana and then Sofia and where Charlie and Amelia had just run off to and let out a low whistle. "You and your wife sure have your hands full, I don't think I could do it when they are so close together in age."

Santana looked at Sofia and kissed her forehead gently before setting her down. Sofia could walk and she needed to break Charlie out of the habit of carrying her everywhere she was getting heavy and Charlie was already complaining about how old they were. "Yeah we—" Santana paused and turned for a moment they weren't married. They certainly weren't dating anymore, and they were much more than simply partners. Sure with the twins things had been a bit touch and go at times when it came to being present and they had argued a lot more after the twins were born. Though that was more due to the sleep deprivation than anything else and the fact that the twins had been a bit premature. But Charlie hadn't left her side and Isabela took her duties as a big sister very seriously. She was incredibly grateful that the two of them _weren't_ identical much to Charlie's utter disappointment. But they were a family, a big family. Charlie was there every day, even when she had to take business trips she made sure that she called like every hour and skyped with the kids. And when the kids were asleep they talked for as long as they could. They weren't perfect they still argued over stupid stuff. But it was never in front of the children. So the question was—why hadn't they gotten remarried. It was basically like they were married already. It just hadn't seemed important at the time, they were working. Santana blinked and noticed that Tina was giving her a curious look and she smiled, "Sorry, I couldn't do this without her, we're partners in every sense of the word."

"No!" Amelia wailed as Charlie held onto her tightly as she cried. "Bela!"

"You're going to see Bela in a few hours Amelia, nothing's going to happen to her. I promise, you can even help us pick her up from school and she'll tell you about all the fun she had." Charlie said soothingly. She looks at Santana already exhausted. "Why don't we go drop you off with your grandma," Charlie said with a bit of a relieved sigh as she looked at Santana. "We're going to the store and we're getting her a leash."

"We are not leashing our children Charlie, they aren't pets!" Santana said shaking her head and waving goodbye to Tina.

"She can't keep running like that, she's too fast and I need to be able to take my eyes of her for like two seconds Santana." Charlie said. "We're getting her a leash."

"Mama," Sofia said running to Charlie and holding her hands up. " _Up_!"

"What's the magic word?" Charlie said looking at Sofia.

" _Please_." Sofia begged hopping up and down.

Charlie kept a firm grip on Amelia and scooped Sofia up immediately. "Your wish is my command." Sofia giggled at this and immediately curled against Charlie looking over at Amelia who was still crying and rubbed her back.

Santana rolled her eyes, but eyed Charlie who was carrying both their children and she bit her lip. She wasn't paranoid that Charlie was going to leave them anymore. She had the time to bolt when the twins had come and they barely slept for days. It wasn't one of them waking up to take care of it. But Charlie had stayed not because it was her duty but because she loved them—all of them. Every now and again Charlie and the kids would make it mommy appreciation day and they'd attempt to spoil her. Sure it usually led to a massive mess in the kitchen but they'd make her breakfast in bed and they'd get her flowers. Charlie was making the effort even if some days it was simply to tiring or they had been too busy to do be on the same page. Santana bit her lip as she watched her twins and Charlie who was humming to them trying to get Amelia to calm down and she smiled she knew exactly what she had to do.

* * *

Charlotte pitched face first into their bed, she was always tired and she knew they still had one more kid in them—but they were going to adopt. She had wanted to bring it up. She didn't really want a huge age difference between her children, she wanted them to be close and be a family. To have each other's backs. "I just read Sofia and Amelia If You Give a Pig a pancake like four times Santana. Sofia didn't want to go to sleep."

"I think you missed the whole point of that book Charlie," Santana teases as she crawls into bed with Charlie keeping the small box in the palm of her hand. Charlie doesn't look up. "But we got it down, and Isabela seems to be quite popular. I know you weren't pleased when she got her first kiss today."

Charlie grumbled, "Who does that? That boy is trouble I _swear_! Probably a little Puckerman in the making. That's who."

Santana laughed, she had thought it was cute that MJ had a little crush on Isabela who didn't quite seem to notice, that she talked about him _all the time_." He was her best friend in the world. She suspected that if they kept in touch it might morph into something else at a later time but she wasn't going to get Charlie all worked up. "They're growing up Charlie—we're going to need to talk about how Amelia is taking Isabela being gone. It's good that she loves her big sister but she can't throw tantrums because Bela is making friends her own age."

"I think she'll grow out of it, but it's been the three of them for so long and Isabela really does love them. I think it's a good thing they're so close in age. I mean Bela could be like Frannie—and no one wants that." Charlie said and she gets nudged by Santana.

"You don't have to hide it from me. I know you and Quinn adore Frannie and you have her back no matter what," Santana teased and Charlie grumbled and moved to wrap her arms around her. She pulled back just a bit. Charlie glanced at her, "So we've got to get our schedule fixed, with Bela going to school. I'll drop off the twins with your mother for now, and you can take Isabela into school in the mornings as long as you promise not to embarrass her. No crying Charlie or glaring at the little boys." Charlie huffed at this and Santana laughed and kissed Charlie. "Oh by the way, I cleared your lunch with Sam tomorrow," Charlie turned to her and Santana pulled out the ring box and placed it in Charlie's hand. "Here's the ring, meet me at the courthouse tomorrow by eleven."

Charlie blinked and stared at the ring box and then looked at Santana for a moment, and then pops open the ring she certainly hadn't been expecting this of all things. She sniffs and looks at Santana. "You know, when I asked you to marry you the first time. We had a nice moonlit walk, there were flowers and a nice evening picnic where we watched the stars—it really was romantic and I slaved over that for weeks. The least you could have done is get down on one knee." Charlie shakes her head and leans in over and kisses Santana. "The answer is _yes_ by the way."

"You make it seem like you had a choice," Santana said with a bit of a smile as she kisses back.

"Are you sure you don't want to have a bigger ceremony this time?" Charlie asks. "We can afford something small and private if you want." Charlie suggests.

Santana was quiet for a moment thinking about it, "I thought about it—but honestly the kids think we're married anyway and we've already done it once and really I'd rather have another honeymoon—just for a three day weekend. Just the two of us?"

Charlie's grin is immediate, a three day weekend with just Santana would be amazing. She loved her kids but she craved some time alone with Santana which wasn't punctuated by her children thinking that they could slip into their bed anytime they wanted. She wasn't a fan of this wearing clothes to bed. But the smile fades after a moment and she looks at Santana again. "Santana—if we do this again. It's forever. No more divorcing when things get tough. I don't think I could handle it again."

"I have no intention of letting you escape again," Santana said and smiles when Charlie rolls her eyes and then she laughs when Charlie pulls her onto her lap and she presses her lips against Charlie's. Yep she was definitely going to enjoy their honeymoon period all over again.


	24. Chapter 24

Charlie sat in front of her son and adjusted his bow-tie and placed the hat on his head. They had brought Rory home when he had been three years old. Even though they had been getting the girls prepared, the very idea of having a boy in their space hadn't exactly gone as well as it should have. Isabela was currently in her boys had cooties phase. Except for MJ he didn't have cooties and Charlie wasn't thrilled with how close they were. Sofia had not been thrilled there was someone else going to be vying for her attention. Amelia—well Amelia had been quite pleased she wasn't going to be the youngest and now could boss someone else around like Isabela and Sofia occasionally did to her. "It's got to be straight just like mine. You've got a super important job."

"I'm the ring bear!" Rory said and Charlie flashed him a huge smile.

"Yes you are. Your mom totally wouldn't let me put you in a bear costume though. I thought it'd be adorable," Charlie said with a huff tapping him on the nose. Renewing her vows with Santana might have probably waited a bit longer but five years was a big thing and now they wanted the ceremony. Their little family was complete. Four kids was nothing to sneeze at but they had made it work. Adopting a child was something that they had wanted to do and it hadn't taken them long after they had gotten married to think about adopting a child. Rory had been a blessing for both of them and it wasn't just about their vows, it was about their family. That's what they were, a family. "Now," Charlie said as she adjusted her own bow tie. "How do I look?"

Rory grinned and reached forward so he could help straighten out Charlie's bow tie. He only made it crooked but he liked the idea of helping out his ma. "Good! Can we go see mommy now?"

"Yes you can, your mommy wants to surprise me so I'm not allowed to peek." Charlie reminded him. "Remember you have to stay super clean until after you finish being the ring bear. So stay away from Amelia! You know she's just going to get you into trouble." Charlie stands up and picks out a rose that has no thorns and hands it to Rory. "Go give this to your mom and remember to tell her how beautiful she is."

"Yes ma!" Rory said running off so he could show his mom how handsome he looked.

Charlie laughed and got up, slipping on her jacket and combing her hair once more. She wanted to look downright sexy for Santana. Santana who had freaked out when she saw a grey hair on her head a few days ago. Four kids was a lot of work and the studio was doing insanely well. She was exhausted most days but at least she was building the life she wanted with the woman of her dreams.

* * *

"Why can't I wear a tux like Ma and Rory? This isn't _fair_. I don't want to match Sofia!" Amelia said stomping her foot. "We're not even _identical_!"

Sofia rolled her eyes, "We're flower girls Lia, and we're _supposed_ to be in cute dresses! Right mom?"

Santana groaned as she looked at her daughters and placed a huge smile on her face, they currently went back and forth all the time. She was quickly realizing that Charlie had taken the easiest job of getting Rory ready. She looked over at Isabela who was busy doing her hair.

"Knock it off you too, it's not about you. It's about mom and ma!" Isabela snaps at them. "Lia it wouldn't kill you to wear a dress once! For ma and mom!"

The bickering continued, and Santana groaned. They hadn't made Lia wear a dress for their sakes. Charlie had insisted that they put her in a tux and they get ready together. But Judy, her mother and abuela had insisted and here they were. They had all helped plan this—it was like the wedding that they never had and they both didn't really want but if it made their families happy then that they could all bear a bit of discomfort. At least it was very small and personal. "Enough, Amelia, your Ma made sure to get you a suit that you could wear after the ceremony at the reception. She knew how important it was to you. Sofia, you need to be nice." Sofia and Amelia scowled at her and Santana turned to Isabela who had an amused smile on her face, pleased that she seemed to be left off the hook and Santana turned to her. "This isn't just about your ma and me Isabela. This is about our family. You, Sofia, Amelia and Rory. And how happy the four of you make us. Yes we're renewing our vows but it's about _our_ family." Santana looks at her daughters for a moment. There is a knock on the door and Santana hopes it's Charlie but the door opens and Rory peeks his little head in and smiles at her.

"You look really pretty mom. I got this for you." Rory said holding out the rose to his mother.

Santana smiles and moves to her son who is all dressed up, he was a charmer just like Isabela was and all her children in their own special way. They took after Charlie in their own special way. Even Rory, who adored his ma more than anything. "It's beautiful and you look so handsome!"

"I'm the ring bear!" Rory says proudly before hugging his mom and moving to go sit beside Isabela. "You look really pretty to Bela."

"Thank you," Isabela beamed at him.

Rory grinned pleased with himself and looks at Sofia and smiles at her as well. "So do you Sofia," he looks at Amelia for a moment and crinkles his nose and then turns back to his mother.

" _Hey_! What about me!" Amelia says snapping at him.

Rory bites his lip and looks at Amelia, his mothers had told him to always tell the truth. "You look weird," he says truthfully.

Santana groans when Isabela and Sofia immediately snicker and look at Amelia whose jaw drops and she moves to strangle him. She immediately intercepts. It's going to be a very long day.

* * *

Charlie swallowed when Santana finally was joined her and she bit her lip, "You look beautiful," she whispers to Santana. She did, it was a simple fiery red cocktail dress that hugged Santana in all the right places. Three kids and she looked simply stunning. No wonder Santana had insisted that she wait to see her in the dress, they might not have made it to the ceremony. Santana flashes her that smirk and she's damn sure that her heart is going to stop and she'll have a heart attack.

"You don't look that bad yourself," Santana murmurs back looking at Charlie appreciatively. It was a shame that they couldn't have yet another honeymoon after this but, they did get to spend the evening together. They'd be spending the rest of their lives together with the family that they had made. She glances at the small gathering. Her parents and her abuela. Quinn and her lizard children, she had tried for twins and much to her annoyance hadn't gotten them. Frannie and her boyfriend of the week, Charlie's mother and Puck and a few other familiar faces. Her children were sitting there right front and center, they were watching on.

The ceremony goes on until it's time for Charlie to say her vows and she bites her lip and takes Santana's hand. "I've had many amazing days in my life. The birth of Isabela, the birth of the twins, meeting Rory for the first time and bringing him home. But the day that I married you Santana Lopez, in my head I thought that I had won the lottery. I had somehow managed to convince you to spend the rest of your life with me. Like I said lottery." Charlie said and she's met with chuckles from the audience. "But like many people who win big sums of money, they don't always appreciate it and like those people I lost everything. Because I didn't appreciate you. I lost you." Charlie exhales. "I'm not going to make the same mistake again, I will always love you, I will always honor and treasure every moment that I spend with you and our family. I stand here in front of our friends and family and our children, reaffirming my love and commitment to you and our children."

Santana smiles at this and looks at Charlie, even to this day she was taking most of the blame for the first breakdown of their marriage, and it had rooted her. She was trying to do better, trying to be better. "I made a vow to you. To love you and be with you for as long as we both shall live. And I admit that when it got hard. I ran. That was the biggest mistake of my life—because look at what we've done together. Isabela, Sofia, Amelia and our little Prince Charming Rory. Look at what we've accomplished _together_. We got through it, we weren't married but we got through it together like we should have done the first time. And I will never make that mistake again. I am happy—I am so happy that I get to continue this journey by your side. That we tried again that we're making it work like we should have done the first time. So once again, I'm promise to love you—to honor you and keep you. For better or worse, in sickness and in health. For as long as we both shall live." Santana said. Charlie had her chance to escape and she hadn't taken it. She was never going to let her go again.

Charlie flashed Santana a massive grin and looked around for the rings so she could place Santana's new wedding band on her finger. Charlie turned and looked at Rory. " _Psst ring bear you're up!_ " she whispered loudly to him.

Rory blinked and then immediately got up and looked for the small pillow he was supposed to be carrying. He found it on the ground, and put the rings on the pillow before running forward. "Here you go ma!" he said proudly.

Charlie took the ring and slipped it on Santana's finger, before letting Santana slip the ring onto her finger and before anyone said that she could kiss Santana she did, pulling her closely and kissing her deeply. She was sure her kids were making faces at them but she didn't care.

Santana kissed back deeply but she pulled away, "Charlie the kids," she reminded her. "We don't want to scar them." She was met with a pout from Charlie and she leaned in, "Maybe after the reception we can get away for a little bit and continue where we left off?" she suggest and this gets a massive smile from Charlie causing her to laugh and place a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Promise?" Charlie asked against Santana's lips.

"Promise." Santana said as she turned to face their friends and family and slipped her hands into Charlie's, entwining their fingers together.

* * *

Santana smiled as Charlie held her arm out that pleased smile on her face, "Charlie everyone here knows that you can't dance."

"Isabela and Sofia gave me lessons. You know the two of them are the devil when they're bossing me around right?" Charlie whispers and waves at her children nervously. Hoping that Bela and Sofia hadn't her. But they were busy talking with their cousins. "I swear I'm good enough to not step on your toes," Charlie said and Santana laughs at this but takes her hand. Immediately Charlie wraps her arms around her and kisses her ignoring the gagging coming from her children. "Santana? I love you." She says simply.

Santana smiles and lets Charlie lead her onto the dance floor. "I love you too," she says as they begin to sway to a slow song. Santana rests her head on Charlie's shoulder. Charlie had taken her lessons from her children to heart though she imagined that they had bullied her into learning how to dance in a way that didn't embarrass them.

"Santana?" Charlie says after a moment. "Will you still love me when I'm old and grey?" Charlie asks, "And I need a walker? Cause I'm old and grey and my face is all wrinkly?"

Santana is about to laugh at this but she hears the seriousness in Charlie's voice and the bit of fear and she looks at her wife and kisses her. "Of course I will, I'm not going to trade you in for a younger model."

Charlie smiles at Santana, "I'll love you even when you're old and grey and you yell at kids to get off our lawn." Charlie says and Santana laughs and swats her.

"Why am I the cranky one in this future of yours? You're the one that gets annoyed when our girls like someone."

"I'll be upset when Rory starts having girls chasing him around to," Charlie admits quietly. "I _love our_ family Santana. They're our babies and I want them to remain our babies forever, I don't want anyone to take them away from us."

Santana is quiet for a moment, "You know—if they don't call us when they're older we can just show up all the time and embarrass the hell out of them." Charlie laughs at this as she spins her around. "Think about it Charlie, once the kid's leave it'll just be me and you again and we can retire and go travel the world together. Just the two of us, it'll just be another adventure."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone, for your reviews and for reading. I do hope you enjoyed this. Now What's on the horizon. I think I'm going to start something new. And I know some of you are like you have a billion other stories to write. I know this but this has been my newest baby and yes there will be some Chartana. A very unhealthy Chartana. There will also be some Faberry, and there will also be some Frannie/Brittany. Various other pairings. Who knows how long it'll take for me to write this but what I do know is that some of the fics that I've got sitting will start updating, as I focus on clearing them. Anyway here is a little teaser for the next fic:
> 
> Yesterday was the tornado warning  
> Today's like the morning after  
> Your world is torn in half  
> You wake in it's wake to start the mourning process  
> And rebuilding, you're still a work in progress

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are always nice


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